Output signal generating method, decoded data generating method, output signal generating apparatus, and decoded data generating apparatus

ABSTRACT

A transmitter apparatus wherein a simple structure is used to successfully suppress the degradation of error rate performance that otherwise would be caused by fading or the like. There are included encoding parts that encode transport data; a mapping part that performs such a mapping that encoded data sequentially formed by the encoding parts are not successively included in the same symbol, thereby forming data symbols; and a symbol interleaver that interleaves the data symbols. In this way, a low computational complexity can be used to perform an interleaving process equivalent to a bit interleaving process to effectively improve the reception quality at a receiving end.

This is a continuation application of application Ser. No. 13/766,557filed Feb. 13, 2013, which is a continuation application of applicationSer. No. 12/447,885 filed Apr. 29, 2009, which is a national stage ofPCT/JP2007/071337 filed Nov. 1, 2007, which is based on JapaneseApplication No. 2007-284582 filed Oct. 31, 2007, Japanese ApplicationNo. 2007-173156 filed Jun. 29, 2007, and Japanese Application No.2006-299533 filed Nov. 2, 2006, the entire contents of each of which areincorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a transmitting method and transmittingapparatus that encode transmit data and form one symbol from a pluralityof encoded data, and a receiving method thereof.

BACKGROUND ART

In radio communication, provision is generally made for transmit data tobe encoded before transmission in order to increase error correctioncapability. One such encoding method is LDPC encoding such as describedin Non-patent Document 1. Since this LDPC encoding enables errorcorrection to be performed using an extremely large block unit(constraint length), it is considered to be resilient to burst errors,and suitable for communication in a fading environment.

Also, a multi-antenna transmitting apparatus that transmits OFDM signalsfrom a plurality of antennas, such as described in Non-patent Document2, is known as a technology for increasing data transmission speed. Withsuch a multi-antenna transmitting apparatus, interleaving data in aplurality of frequency directions (subcarrier directions) has beenproposed as one method of suppressing burst errors due to frequencyselective fading.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the frame configuration of a transmit signalin such a multi-antenna transmitting apparatus. In FIG. 1, distortiondue to fading fluctuation—that is, a channel estimate—and a preamble forestimating frequency offset between a transmitter and receiver, areplaced at the start of a frame, and data symbols are placed thereafter.Also, pilot symbols for estimating frequency offset, which fluctuatesover time, are placed on carrier Y. In FIG. 1, one square indicates onesymbol. That is to say, in the example shown in FIG. 1, one OFDM symbolcomposed of a total of 7 symbols—data symbols and a pilot—is transmittedat each of times i, i+1, . . . . At this time, data are interleavedwithin one OFDM symbol, and placed in the order (1) (2) (3) . . . (11)(12).

-   Non-patent Document 1: “Low-Density Parity-Check Code and Decoding    Method LDPC (Low Density Parity) Code/Sum-Product Decoding Method”    Triceps 2002-   Non-patent Document 2: 2High Speed Physical Layer (PHY) in 5 GHz    band” IEEE802.11a 1999.-   Non-patent Document 3: B. Lu, G. Yue, and X. Wang, “Performance    analysis and design optimization of LDPC-coded MIMO OFDM systems”    IEEE Trans. Signal Processing, vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 348-361, February    2004-   Non-patent Document 4: B. M. Hochwald, and S. ten Brink, “Achieving    near-capacity on a multiple-antenna channel” IEEE Trans. Commun.,    vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 389-399, March 2003-   Non-patent Document 5: S. Bäro, J. Hagenauer, and M. Witzke,    “Iterative detection of MIMO transmission using a list-sequential    (LISS) detector” Proc. of IEEE ICC 2003, May 2003-   Non-patent Document 6: B. M. Hochwald, and S. ten Brink, “Achieving    near-capacity on a multiple-antenna channel” IEEE Trans. Commun.,    vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 389-399, March 2003-   Non-patent Document 7: S. Bäro, J. Hagenauer, and M. Witzke,    “Iterative detection of MIMO transmission using a list-sequential    (LISS) detector” Proc. of IEEE ICC 2003, May 2003-   Non-patent Document 8: P. Robertson, E. Villebrun, and P. Holler, “A    comparison of optimal and sub-optimal MAP decoding algorithms in the    log domain” Proc. IEEE ICC 1995, pp. 1009-1013, June 1995-   Non-patent Document 9: K. Kobayashi, Y. Murakami, M. Orihashi,    and T. Matsuoka, “Varying interleave patterns with iterative    decoding for improved performance in MIMO systems” Proc. of IEEE    PIMRC2004, vol. 2, pp. 1429-1433, September 2004-   Non-patent Document 10: T. Ohgane, T. Nishimura, and Y. Ogawa,    “Applications of space division multiplexing and those performance    in a MIMO channel,” IEICE Trans. Commun., vol. E88-B, no. 5, pp.    1843-1851, May 2005-   Non-patent Document 11: “Digital Wireless Transmission Technology”    Pearson Education-   Non-patent Document 12: “Convolutional Code Maximal Likelihood    Decoding and Its Characteristics” Technical Report of IEICE A Vol.    J73-A No. 2 pp. 218-224

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention

When a block code such as LDPC is used, the greater the number ofmodulation multi-values, the smaller is the number of symbols fortransmitting one encoded block, and the shorter is the time in which oneencoded block is transmitted. As a result, if there is a notch due tofading on that transmission period, a burst error is likely to occur.That is to say, the greater the number of modulation multi-values, thehigher is the probability of a burst error.

With a block code such as LDPC the block size can be varied, and thegreater the block size (that is, the longer the constraint length), thelower is the probability of a burst error caused by a fading notch orthe like. Therefore, when the number of modulation multi-values isvaried as in the case of adaptive modulation, it appears that bursterrors can be suppressed if the encoded block size is increased in linewith an increase in the number of modulation multi-values.

However, designing an encoder so as to vary the block size each time thenumber of modulation multi-values is changed is not desirable because ofthe complexity of the configuration of such an encoder.

Furthermore, a problem with MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) orsuchlike multi-antenna transmission is that, although high separationprecision, and thus a high SNR as a received signal, can be secured fora data symbol directly following a preamble placed at the start of aframe, separation precision, and thus the received signal SNR, declinesthe farther a symbol is from the preamble.

Error rate performance degradation due to fading such as described abovealso occurs in a similar way when encoding other than block encoding isused.

A method of suppressing such error rate performance degradation due tofading is to perform bit interleaving of encoded data. However, withconventional bit interleaving, it is difficult to reconcile a reductionin computational complexity with faster processing. A problem has thusbeen the inadequacy of such bit interleaving circuitry for incorporationin current communication devices such as mobile terminals that requirehigh-speed data transmission capability in a small package.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a transmittingmethod, transmitting apparatus, and receiving method that enable errorrate performance degradation due to fading or the like to be suppressedwith a comparatively low computational complexity, and that are alsocapable of high-speed transmission.

Means for Solving the Problems

One aspect of a transmitting method of the present invention is atransmitting method that executes encoding processing on transmit dataconfigured by means of a plurality of bits and forms encoded dataconfigured by means of a plurality of bits, performs arrangement(interleaving) processing on bits belonging to the encoded data,executes modulation processing on the arranged (interleaved) encodeddata and outputs a baseband signal corresponding to a symbol, andtransmits a transmit signal based on the baseband signal, wherein: themodulation processing can use a plurality of modulation methods, andwhichever modulation method is used, two bits extracted arbitrarily froma plurality of bits configuring the symbol are bits belonging tomutually different encoded data, and the encoded data is convolutionallyencoded data; in the encoding processing the encoded data can be formedusing a plurality of different coding rate; in the arrangement(interleaving) processing bits belonging to the encoded data arearranged (interleaved) so that one symbol is configured by collectingtogether bits belonging to any of a plurality of the encoded data; andthe plurality of encoded data used in arrangement (interleaving)includes at least one of encoded data formed by means of an coding ratedifferent from an coding rate of one encoded data selected arbitrarilyfrom the plurality of encoded data.

One aspect of a transmitting apparatus of the present invention has anencoding section that executes encoding processing on transmit dataconfigured by means of a plurality of bits and forms encoded dataconfigured by means of a plurality of bits, an arranging (interleaving)section that arranges (interleaves) bits belonging to the encoded data,a modulation section that executes modulation processing on the arranged(interleaved) encoded data and outputs a baseband signal correspondingto the symbol, and a transmitting section that transmits a modulatedsignal based on the baseband signal, wherein: the modulation section canuse a plurality of modulation methods, and whichever modulation methodis used, two bits extracted arbitrarily from a plurality of bitsconfiguring the symbol are bits belonging to mutually different encodeddata, and the encoded data formed in the encoding section isconvolutionally encoded data; the encoding section can form the encodeddata using a plurality of different coding rate; the arranging(interleaving) section arranges (interleaves) bits belonging to theencoded data so that one symbol is configured by collecting togetherbits belonging to any of a plurality of the encoded data; and theplurality of encoded data used in arrangement (interleaving) includes atleast one of encoded data formed by means of an coding rate differentfrom an coding rate of one encoded data selected arbitrarily from theplurality of encoded data.

One aspect of a receiving method of the present invention is a receivingmethod that receives a modulated signal of a transmitting methodwhereby: a plurality of symbols generated from the modulated signal aregenerated by a plurality of modulation methods, and whichever modulationmethod is used, two bits extracted arbitrarily from a plurality of bitsconfiguring the symbol are bits belonging to mutually different encodeddata, and the encoded data is convolutionally encoded data; and theencoded data can be formed using a plurality of different coding rate,and includes at least one of encoded data formed by means of an codingrate different from an coding rate of one encoded data selectedarbitrarily from the plurality of encoded data; wherein the receivingmethod generates a baseband signal from a received signal, and, in asymbol corresponding to the baseband signal, generates encoded dataconfigured by means of a plurality of bits by performing rearrangement(deinterleaving) processing on bits included in a plurality of symbols,and generates decoded data configured by means of a plurality of bits bydecoding the encoded data.

One aspect of a transmitting apparatus of the present invention employsa configuration having a mapping section that has a plurality of linesof encoded data as parallel input and outputs one line of data symbols,and a symbol interleaver that interleaves the data symbols.

According to this configuration, through a combination of mappingprocessing and interleave processing it is possible to achievehigh-speed operation of encoding processing and bit interleaveprocessing, and a bit interleaver having a configuration with a reducedcomputational complexity can be implemented.

One aspect of a transmitting apparatus of the present invention employsa configuration having an encoding section that encodes transmit data, amapping section that forms data symbols by performing mapping such thatencoded data formed sequentially by the encoding section are notsuccessively included in the same symbol, and a symbol interleaver thatinterleaves the data symbols. In other words, processing by this mappingsection is processing that forms data symbols by assigning encoded dataacross a plurality of symbols.

According to this configuration, the mapping section need only performsimple processing whereby mapping is performed such that encoded dataformed sequentially by the encoding section are not successivelyincluded in the same symbol, and the symbol interleaver need onlyperform interleave processing on one line of symbols. As a result,processing equivalent to conventional bit interleaving can be performedby a combination of simple processes, enabling the configuration to besimplified in comparison with a conventional bit interleaver.

One aspect of a transmitting apparatus of the present invention employsa configuration in which the encoding section comprises a plurality ofencoding sections, wherein the mapping section forms one line of datasymbols by performing mapping such that a plurality of lines of encodeddata output from the plurality of encoding sections are mixed within onesymbol, and the symbol interleaver interleaves the one line of datasymbols.

According to this configuration, encoding processing can be speeded upsince encoding is performed by a plurality of encoding sections. Inaddition, by means of mapping, one line of data symbols is formed byperforming mapping such that a plurality of lines of encoded data outputfrom a plurality of encoding sections are mixed within one symbol, andthe symbol interleaver interleaves the one line of data symbols,enabling an increase in computational complexity to be suppressed incomparison with a case in which respective bit interleavers are placedin a stage subsequent to a plurality of encoding sections. As a result,high-speed bit interleaving can be performed while suppressing anincrease in computational complexity.

One aspect of a receiving apparatus of the present invention employs aconfiguration having a symbol deinterleaver that deinterleaves receivesymbols, a plurality of decoding sections, and an assignment sectionthat assigns a signal after the deinterleaving to the plurality ofdecoding sections in parallel.

According to this configuration, decoding processing can be performed inparallel by a plurality of decoding sections, enabling decodingprocessing to be implemented that can keep pace with a high symbol rate.

Advantageous Effect of the Invention

According to the present invention, a transmitting apparatus, receivingapparatus, and bit interleaving method can be implemented that enableerror rate performance degradation due to fading or the like to besuppressed by means of a simple configuration.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a drawing showing an example of the frame configuration of atransmit signal of a conventional multi-antenna transmitting apparatus;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a transmittingapparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a drawing provided to explain LDPC encoding processing by anencoding section;

FIG. 4 is a drawing provided to explain modulation methods, wherein FIG.4A is a drawing provided to explain BPSK, FIG. 4B is a drawing providedto explain QPSK, FIG. 4C is a drawing provided to explain 16QAM, andFIG. 4D is a drawing provided to explain 64QAM;

FIG. 5 is a drawing showing assignment of LDPC encoded data to eachsymbol by an arranging section;

FIG. 6 is a drawing showing assignment of LDPC encoded data to eachsymbol by an arranging section;

FIG. 7 is a drawing showing assignment of LDPC encoded data to eachsymbol by an arranging section;

FIG. 8 is a drawing showing assignment of LDPC encoded data to eachsymbol by an arranging section;

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a multi-antennatransmitting apparatus of Embodiment 2;

FIG. 10 is a drawing showing an example of the frame configurations ofmodulated signals transmitted from each antenna of a multi-antennatransmitting apparatus;

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a multi-antennareceiving apparatus of Embodiment 2;

FIG. 12 is a drawing showing a model of communication between amulti-antenna transmitting apparatus and a multi-antenna receivingapparatus;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the signalprocessing section of a multi-antenna receiving apparatus;

FIG. 14 is a drawing showing the relationship between the SNRcharacteristics of a signal at different points in time in a receivingapparatus;

FIG. 15 is a drawing showing an example of arrangement processing ofdata after encoding;

FIG. 16 is a drawing showing an example of arrangement processing ofdata after encoding;

FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing another example of the configurationof a multi-antenna transmitting apparatus of Embodiment 2;

FIG. 18 is a drawing showing an example of arrangement processing ofdata after encoding;

FIG. 19 is a drawing showing an example of arrangement processing ofdata after encoding;

FIG. 20 is a drawing showing an example of arrangement processing ofdata after encoding;

FIG. 21 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a signalprocessing section;

FIG. 22 is a drawing showing an example of arrangement processing ofLDPC encoded data;

FIG. 23 is a drawing showing an example of arrangement processing ofLDPC encoded data;

FIG. 24 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a multi-antennatransmitting apparatus that performs adaptive modulation;

FIG. 25 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a multi-antennareceiving apparatus that receives an adaptive modulation signal;

FIG. 26 is a drawing provided to explain Embodiment 4, wherein FIG. 26Ais a drawing showing how the last block data is assigned when the numberof encoded blocks transmitted last is one, FIG. 26B is a drawing showingbow the last block data is assigned when the number of encoded blockstransmitted last is more than one and not more than two, and FIG. 26C isa drawing showing how the last block data is assigned when the number ofencoded blocks transmitted last is more than two;

FIG. 27 is a drawing provided, as an example for comparison, to explaindegradation of reception quality characteristics due to thecommunication conditions when a conventional encoded block assignmentmethod is applied, wherein FIG. 27A is a drawing showing the receivedfield strength state, FIG. 27B is a drawing showing an example of aframe configuration when the modulation method is BPSK, and FIG. 27C isa drawing showing an example of a frame configuration when themodulation method is 16QAM;

FIG. 28 is a drawing showing examples of bit assignment to each symbolaccording to Embodiment 5, wherein FIG. 28A is a drawing showing bitassignment to each symbol in the case of QPSK, FIG. 28B is a drawingshowing bit assignment to each symbol in the case of 16QAM, and FIG. 28Cis a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration;

FIG. 29 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a transmittingapparatus of Embodiment 5;

FIG. 30 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a receivingapparatus of Embodiment 5;

FIG. 31 is a drawing showing other examples of bit assignment to eachsymbol according to Embodiment 5, wherein FIG. 31A is a drawing showingbit assignment to each symbol in the case of QPSK, FIG. 31B is a drawingshowing bit assignment to each symbol in the case of 16QAM, and FIG. 31Cis a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration;

FIG. 32 is a drawing showing examples of bit assignment to each symbolaccording to Embodiment 6, wherein FIG. 32A is a drawing showing bitassignment to each symbol in the case of QPSK, FIG. 32B is a drawingshowing bit assignment to each symbol in the case of 16QAM, and FIG. 32Cis a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration;

FIG. 33 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a transmittingapparatus of Embodiment 6;

FIG. 34 is a drawing provided to explain the operation of a symbolinterleaver of Embodiment 6;

FIG. 35 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a receivingapparatus of Embodiment 6;

FIG. 36 is a drawing showing other examples of bit assignment to eachsymbol according to Embodiment 6, wherein FIG. 36A is a drawing showingbit assignment to each symbol in the case of QPSK, FIG. 36B is a drawingshowing bit assignment to each symbol in the case of 16QAM, and FIG. 36Cis a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration;

FIG. 37 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a transmittingapparatus of Embodiment 7;

FIG. 38 is a drawing provided to explain the operation of block encodingin Embodiment 7, wherein FIG. 38A is a drawing provided to explain theoperation in the case of QPSK, and FIG. 38B is a drawing provided toexplain the operation in the case of 16QAM;

FIG. 39 is a drawing provided to explain the operation of a trellisencoding section and the operation of bit assignment to symbols by amapping section in Embodiment 7, wherein FIG. 39A is a drawing providedto explain the operation in the case of QPSK, and FIG. 39B is a drawingprovided to explain the operation in the case of 16QAM;

FIG. 40 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a receivingapparatus of Embodiment 7;

FIG. 41 is a drawing showing the configuration of an N_(t)×N_(r) MIMOsystem using spatial multiplexing, wherein FIG. 41A is a drawing showingthe general configuration of a transmitting apparatus, and FIG. 41B is adrawing showing the general configuration of a receiving apparatus;

FIG. 42 is a drawing showing a system model of Embodiment 8, whereinFIG. 42A is a drawing showing the general configuration of atransmitting apparatus, and FIG. 42B is a drawing showing the generalconfiguration of a receiving apparatus;

FIG. 43 is a drawing provided to explain the order of symbols afterinterleaving;

FIG. 44 is a factor graph for a case in which the interleave patterns ofstream A and stream B are the same;

FIG. 45 is a factor graph for a ease in which the interleave patterns ofstream A and stream B are different;

FIG. 46 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a transmittingapparatus that transmits a signal of a plurality of streams from asingle antenna;

FIG. 47 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of amulti-antenna transmitting apparatus of Embodiment 8;

FIG. 48 is a drawing showing examples of processing that assigns bits tosymbols for modulated signal (stream) A transmitted from antenna 114A;

FIG. 49 is a drawing showing examples of processing that assigns bits tosymbols for modulated signal (stream) B transmitted from antenna 114B;

FIG. 50 is a drawing showing examples of processing that assigns bits tosymbols for modulated signal (stream) A transmitted from antenna 114A;

FIG. 51 is a drawing showing examples of processing that assigns bits tosymbols for modulated signal (stream) B transmitted from antenna 114B;

FIG. 52 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of atransmitting apparatus of Embodiment 8;

FIG. 53 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of atransmitting apparatus of Embodiment 8;

FIG. 54 is a drawing showing examples of symbol assignment in thefrequency domain direction in Embodiment 8, wherein FIG. 54A shows anexample in which symbols are placed regularly in the frequency domaindirection, and FIG. 54B shows an example in which symbols are placedrandomly in the frequency domain direction;

FIG. 55A is a drawing showing bit shifts for antenna 114A (stream A) andantenna 114B (stream B) in a case in which the modulation methods ofstream A and stream B are the same, and FIG. 55B is a drawing showingbit shifts for antenna 114A (stream A) and antenna 114B (stream B) in acase in which the modulation methods of stream A and stream B aredifferent;

FIG. 56 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of atransmitting apparatus of Embodiment 8;

FIG. 57 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of atransmitting apparatus of Embodiment 9;

FIG. 58 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of aturbo encoder;

FIG. 59 is a block diagram showing configuration examples when thepresent invention is applied to a system that uses an eigenmode;

FIG. 60A is a drawing showing a case in which the distances between abase station and terminal A to terminal D are long, and FIG. 60B is adrawing showing a case in which the distances between a base station andterminal A to terminal D are short;

FIG. 61 is a drawing showing an example of data flow between a basestation and a terminal;

FIG. 62A is a drawing showing an example of a method of bit assignmentto symbols when the distances between a base station and terminals arelong, and FIG. 62B is a drawing showing an example of a method of bitassignment to symbols when the distances between a base station andterminals are short;

FIG. 63A is a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration whenthe distances between a base station and terminals are long, and FIG.63B is a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration when thedistances between a base station and terminals are short;

FIG. 64 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of abase station of Embodiment 10;

FIG. 65 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of aterminal of Embodiment 10;

FIG. 66A is a drawing showing an example of a method of bit assignmentto symbols when the distances between a base station and terminals arelong, and FIG. 66B is a drawing showing an example of a method of bitassignment to symbols when the distances between a base station andterminals are short;

FIG. 67A is a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration whenthe distances between a base station and terminals are long, and FIG.67B is a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration when thedistances between a base station and terminals are short;

FIG. 68A is a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration whenthe distances between a base station and terminals are long, and FIG.68B is a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration when thedistances between a base station and terminals are short;

FIG. 69A is a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration whenthe distances between a base station and terminals are long, and FIG.69B is a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration when thedistances between a base station and terminals are short;

FIG. 70A is a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration whenthe distances between a base station and terminals are long, and FIG.70B is a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration when thedistances between a base station and terminals are short;

FIG. 71A is a drawing showing an example of a method of hit assignmentto symbols when the distances between a base station and terminals arelong, and FIG. 71B is a drawing showing an example of a method of bitassignment to symbols when the distances between a base station andterminals are short;

FIG. 72A is a drawing showing an example of signal point arrangement inthe in-phase I—quadrature-phase Q plane of a modulation method usedinstead of 16QAM, and FIG. 72B is a drawing for explaining a method ofdetermining bits b1 and b2;

FIG. 73A is a drawing showing an example of signal point arrangement inthe in-phase I—quadrature-phase Q plane of a modulation method usedinstead of 64QAM, and FIG. 73B is a drawing for explaining a method ofdetermining bits b1 and b2;

FIG. 74A is a drawing showing an example of a method of bit assignmentto symbols when the distances between a base station and terminals arelong, and FIG. 74B is a drawing showing an example of a method of bitassignment to symbols when the distances between a base station andterminals are short;

FIG. 75A is a drawing showing an example of signal point arrangement inthe in-phase I—quadrature-phase Q plane of a modulation method usedinstead of 64QAM, and FIG. 75B is a drawing for explaining a method ofdetermining bits b1, b2, b3, and b4;

FIG. 76 is a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration in thetime domain direction of a signal transmitted by terminal #A;

FIG. 77 is a drawing showing an example of a frame configuration in thetime domain direction of a signal transmitted by terminal #B;

FIG. 78 is a drawing showing an example of data flow between terminal #Aand terminal #B in Embodiment 11;

FIG. 79 is a drawing showing examples of data symbol configurations inEmbodiment 11, wherein FIG. 79A is a drawing showing an example of datasymbol configuration in the case of QPSK, and FIG. 79B is a drawingshowing an example of data symbol configuration in the case of 16QAM;

FIG. 80 is a drawing showing examples of data symbol configurations inEmbodiment 11, wherein FIG. 80A is a drawing showing an example of datasymbol configuration in the case of QPSK, and FIG. 80B is a drawingshowing an example of data symbol configuration in the case of 16QAM;

FIG. 81 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration ofterminal #A of Embodiment 11;

FIG. 82 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration ofterminal #B of Embodiment 11;

FIG. 83 is a drawing showing examples of data symbol configurations inEmbodiment 11, wherein FIG. 83A is a drawing showing an example of datasymbol configuration in the case of QPSK, and FIG. 83B is a drawingshowing an example of data symbol configuration in the case of 16QAM;

FIG. 84 is a drawing showing examples of data symbol configurations inEmbodiment 11, wherein FIG. 84A is a drawing showing an example of datasymbol configuration in the case of QPSK, and FIG. 84B is a drawingshowing an example of data symbol configuration in the case of 16QAM;

FIG. 85 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of atransmitting apparatus of another embodiment;

FIG. 86 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of atransmitting apparatus of another embodiment; and

FIG. 87 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of areceiving apparatus of another embodiment.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detailwith reference to the accompanying drawings.

Embodiment 1

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a transmitting apparatus according toEmbodiment 1 of the present invention. In transmitting apparatus 10,transmit data S1 is input to encoding section 11. Encoding section 11executes block encoding processing on transmit data S1, and sends blockencoded data S2 thus obtained to arranging (interleaving) section 12. Inthis embodiment, encoding section 11 performs LDPC encoding processing.

Arranging section 12 arranges (interleaves) block encoded data S2 sothat one data symbol is configured by collecting together intra-blockblock encoded data of different encoded blocks, and supplies arrangedblock encoded data S2 to modulation section 15. Specifically, blockencoded data S2 is input to selector 13, and that selector 13 sendsblock encoded data S2 in bit units to memories 14-1 to 14-3 ormodulation section 15. Memories 14-1 to 14-3 function as buffermemories, and send temporarily stored bits to modulation section 15 on acoordinated timing basis. For example, when modulation section 15performs QPSK, memory 14-1 is used, and a bit stored in memory 14-1 isoutput at timing coordinated with a bit sent directly to modulationsection 15 from selector 13. By this means, one QPSK symbol is formed bymodulation section 15 using a total of two bits comprising a bit inputfrom memory 14-1 and a bit input directly from selector 13. On the otherhand, when modulation section 15 performs 16QAM, memories 14-1 to 14-3are used, and bits stored in memories 14-1 to 14-3 are output at timingcoordinated with a bit sent directly to modulation section 15 fromselector 13. By this means, one 16QAM symbol is formed by modulationsection 15 using a total of four bits comprising bits input frommemories 14-1 to 14-3 and a bit input directly from selector 13.

To simplify the drawing, only three memories, 14-1 to 14-3, are shown inFIG. 2, but when modulation section 15 performs 64QAM, five memories areprovided, and one 64QAM symbol is formed by modulation section 15 usinga total of six bits comprising bits input from these memories and a bitinput directly from selector 13.

The configuration of arranging section 12 shown in FIG. 2 is just oneexample, and any configuration may be used whereby block encoded data S2is arranged and supplied to modulation section 15 so that encoded datain one block are assigned to a plurality of data symbols.

Modulation section 15 performs adaptive modulation based on controlsignal S10. That is to say, modulation section 15 switches itsmodulation processing among BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM based oncontrol signal S10. Control signal S10 is also input to selector 13 ofarranging section 12, and selector 13 changes the bit arrangement ruleaccording to which modulation processing is performed by modulationsection 15. This will be explained in detail later herein.

Baseband signal S3 corresponding to a transmit symbol obtained bymodulation section 15 is input to radio section 16. Radio section 16executes predetermined modulation processing such as digital/analogconversion and up-conversion on baseband signal S3, and supplies RFsignal S4 thus obtained to antenna 17.

LDPC code generation processing by encoding section 11 of thisembodiment will now be described using FIG. 3. Encoding section (LDPCencoder) 11 has transmit data S1 (that is, data before LDPC encoding) asinput, and outputs block encoded data S2 (that is, data after LDPCencoding) by performing LDPC encoding on transmit data S1. For example,if data before LDPC encoding is designated (m1a, m2a, m490a), and theparity check matrix is designated G, (C1a, C2a, C980a) is output as dataafter LDPC encoding. That is to say, post-encoding block #1 composed of980 bits is formed from pre-encoding block #1 composed of 490 bits.

Modulation processing by modulation section 15 will now be describedusing FIG. 4. As this modulation processing is a known technology, itwill be described briefly. FIG. 4A shows a BPSK signal pointarrangement, with one bit—that is, b1—transmitted in one symbol. FIG. 4Bshows a QPSK signal point arrangement, with two bits—that is, (b1,b2)—transmitted in one symbol. FIG. 4C shows a 16QAM signal pointarrangement, with four bits—that is, (b1, b2, b3, b4)—transmitted in onesymbol. FIG. 4D shows a 64QAM signal point arrangement, with sixbits—that is, (b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6)—transmitted in one symbol.

Arrangement processing by arranging section 12, which is acharacteristic of this embodiment, will now be described using FIG. 5 toFIG. 8. FIG. 5 to FIG. 8 show to which post-modulation symbols bits ineach LDPC encoded block are assigned. Specifically, these drawings showthe symbols in which encoded data in one block (data after LDPCencoding) configured by means of 980 bits are placed. The horizontalaxis indicates the symbol time sequence, and the vertical axis indicatesthe bit numbers configuring one symbol—that is, b1 in the case of BPSK;b1 and b2 in the case of QPSK; b1, b2, b3, and b4 in the case of 16QAM;and b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, and b6 in the case of 64QAM.

In these drawings, #X-Y indicates the Y'th bit (bit number Y among 980bits) of the X'th encoded block. For example, #1-1 indicates the 1st bitof the 1st encoded block. Similarly, #3-979 indicates the 979th bit ofthe 3rd encoded block.

FIG. 5 (a) shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulationmethod is BPSK. When the modulation method is BPSK, one bit (b1) istransmitted in one symbol, and therefore only one 980-bit encoded blockis transmitted by means of 980 symbols.

FIG. 5 (b) shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulationmethod is QPSK. When the modulation method is QPSK, two bits (b1, b2)are transmitted in one symbol, and therefore two 980-bit post-encodingblocks can be transmitted by means of 980 symbols. As is clear from thedrawing, each symbol here is configured by collecting togetherintra-block encoded data of different encoded blocks. Specifically, bits#1-1 to #1-980 of post-encoding block #1 are assigned to bit b1 of the980 QPSK symbols, and bits #2-1 to #2-980 of post-encoding block #2 areassigned to bit b2 of the 980 symbols. By this means, bits (data) ineach encoded block can be dispersed temporally across a number ofsymbols equal to that of BPSK, enabling an overall drop in the qualityof data within an encoded block because of a notch due to fading to beavoided. Thus, since the probability of most data within an encodedblock being erroneous in a burst fashion is low, the error rateperformance can be improved.

FIG. 5 (c) shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulationmethod is 16QAM. When the modulation method is 16QAM, four bits (b1, b2,b3, b4) are transmitted in one symbol, and therefore four 980-bitpost-encoding blocks can be transmitted by means of 980 symbols. Acharacteristic of bit assignment to each symbol here is that, as withQPSK, encoded data in one block are assigned to a plurality of symbols.Specifically, data #1-1 to #1-980 of post-encoding block #1 are assignedto bit b1 of the 980 16QAM symbols, data #2-1 to #2-980 of post-encodingblock #2 are assigned to bit b2 of the 980 symbols, data #3-1 to #3-980of post-encoding block #3 are assigned to bit b3 of the 980 symbols, anddata #4-1 to #4-980 of post-encoding block #4 are assigned to bit b4 ofthe 980 symbols. By this means, bits (data) in each encoded block can bedispersed temporally across a number of symbols equal to that of BPSK,enabling an overall drop in the quality of data within an encoded blockbecause of a notch due to fading to be avoided. Thus, since theprobability of most data within an encoded block being erroneous in aburst fashion is low, the error rate performance can be improved.

FIG. 5 (d) shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulationmethod is 64QAM. When the modulation method is 64QAM, six bits (b1, b2,b3, b4, b5, b6) are transmitted in one symbol, and therefore six 980-bitpost-encoding blocks can be transmitted by means of 980 symbols. Acharacteristic of bit assignment to each symbol here is that, as withQPSK and 16QAM, encoded data in one block are assigned to a plurality ofsymbols. Specifically, data #1-1 to #1-980 of post-encoding block #1 areassigned to bit b1 of the 980 64QAM symbols, data #2-1 to #2-980 ofpost-encoding block #2 are assigned to bit b2 of the 980 symbols, data#3-1 to #3-980 of post-encoding block #3 are assigned to bit b3 of the980 symbols, data #4-1 to #4-980 of post-encoding block #4 are assignedto bit b4 of the 980 symbols, data #5-1 to #5-980 of post-encoding block#5 are assigned to bit b5 of the 980 symbols, and data #6-1 to #6-980 ofpost-encoding block #6 are assigned to bit b6 of the 980 symbols.

By this means, bits (data) in each encoded block can be dispersedtemporally across a number of symbols equal to that of BPSK, enabling anoverall drop in the quality of data within an encoded block because of anotch due to fading to be avoided. Thus, since the probability of mostdata within an encoded block being erroneous in a burst fashion is low,the error rate performance can be improved.

Second examples of arrangement processing of arranging section 12 ofthis embodiment will now be described using FIG. 6. The examples shownin FIG. 6 are similar to those in FIG. 5 in that encoded data in oneblock are assigned to a plurality of symbols, and the same effect can beobtained as when arrangement is performed as shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 6differs from FIG. 5 in that, with QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM, onepost-encoding block is not assigned to a fixed bit (for example, b1only), but is assigned to all bits (for example, in the case of 16QAM,to b1, b2, b3, and b4). Specifically, when the modulation method is16QAM, for example, a characteristic in this case is that block #1 istransmitted using b1, b2, b3, and b4, so that, for post-encoding block#1, data #1-1 is assigned to bit b1, #1-2 to b2, #1-3 to b3, and #1-4 tob4.

The reason for using such an assignment method will now be explained.There are differences in 16QAM b1 reception quality, b2 receptionquality, b3 reception quality, and b4 reception quality. It will beassumed here that b1 reception quality is the poorest. In this case, ifblock #1 is transmitted using only b1, block #1 will be a block withpoor reception quality. When communication based on packet is performed,packet errors are affected by the reception quality of the block withthe poorest reception quality. Therefore, in this case, receptionquality should be made as uniform as possible for blocks #1 to #4. Thiscan be achieved by performing such assignment shown in FIG. 6. Also,preferably, the number of times assignment is performed to b1, b2, b3,and b4 should be made as uniform as possible for blocks #1 to #4. Thedifference in the number of times assignment is performed shouldpreferably be once at most. Since the number of symbols is notnecessarily a multiple of 4 (bits) (the number of bits that can betransmitted in one symbol in 16QAM), a difference of one time may occurhowever assignment is performed.

Here, a case in which 16QAM is used has been described by way ofexample, but the same effect can also be obtained when the sameprocessing is performed with 64QAM. However, the same effect cannotnecessarily be obtained in the case of QPSK since there is no differencein reception quality between b1 and b2. Nevertheless, since thepossibility of a difference in reception quality arising due todistortion caused by the transmitting apparatus and receiving apparatuscannot be denied, there is a possibility of such an effect beingobtained.

Third examples of arrangement processing of arranging section 12 of thisembodiment will now be described using FIG. 7. The examples shown inFIG. 7 are similar to those in FIG. 5 in that encoded data in one blockare assigned to a plurality of symbols, and the same effect can beobtained as when arrangement is performed as shown in FIG. 5. FIG. 7differs from FIG. 5 in that, while the same block data is transmitted bythe same symbols, the order of transmission is block #1 data and block#2 data blocks alternately for QPSK; block #1, block #2, block #3 inthat order for 16QAM; and block #1, block #2, block #3, block #4, block#5, block #6 in that order for 64QAM. That is to say, block data may beassigned to symbols at intervals instead of being assigned to successivesymbols as in FIG. 5. However, the assignment methods as shown in FIG. 5and FIG. 6 enable intra-block data to be dispersed among more symbols,and are therefore more effective in improving reception quality.

Fourth examples of arrangement processing of arranging section 12 ofthis embodiment will now be described using FIG. 8. The examples shownin FIG. 8 are similar to those in FIG. 5 in that encoded data in oneblock are assigned to a plurality of symbols, and the same effect can beobtained as when arrangement is performed as shown in FIG. 5. Theexamples in FIG. 8 combine the concepts illustrated in FIG. 6 and FIG.7. In FIG. 8, symbols to which assignment is performed are changed in2-bit units. By this means, the same effect can be obtained as in FIG. 5and FIG. 6, but the assignment methods as shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6enable intra-block data to be dispersed among more symbols, and aretherefore more effective in improving reception quality.

Thus, according to this embodiment, by providing encoding section 11that executes block encoding processing on transmit data and forms blockencoded data, modulation section 15 that modulates block encoded dataand forms data symbols, and arranging section 12 that arranges blockencoded data so that one data symbol is configured by collectingtogether intra-block block encoded data of different encoded blocks, andsupplies the arranged block encoded data to modulation section 15,transmitting apparatus 10 can be implemented that enables burst errorsto be suppressed with a comparatively simple configuration withoutchanging the block size of an encoded block even when the number ofmodulation multi-values is increased.

The processing of arranging section 12 can be said to be arranging blockencoded data so that one symbol is configured by collecting togetherblock encoded data of more encoded blocks as the number of modulationmulti-values of modulation section 15 increases.

In this embodiment, cases have mainly been described in which an LDPCcode is used as a block code, but this embodiment can also be widelyapplied to block codes other than an LDPC code. Block codes other thanan LDPC code include a BCH code, Reed-Solomon code, and so forth. Also,in this embodiment, cases have mainly been described by way of examplein which a block code such as an LDPC code is used, but bit assignmentto symbols according to this embodiment can also be applied to a case inwhich a trellis code such as a turbo code or convolutional code is used.A detailed description will be given in Embodiment 6.

In this embodiment, a case in which a single carrier is used has beendescribed by way of example, but the present invention can also bewidely applied to multicarrier methods such as OFDM.

Embodiment 2

FIG. 9 shows the configuration of a multi-antenna transmitting apparatusaccording to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

Multi-antenna transmitting apparatus 100 is a transmitting apparatusthat performs so-called OFDM-MIMO communication, and transmits differentmodulated signals from two antennas. Specifically, multi-antennatransmitting apparatus 100 transmits modulated signal A from antenna114A and transmits modulated signal B from antenna 114B. In FIG. 9,virtually the same configuration is used for the signal processingsystem for modulated signal A and the signal processing system formodulated signal B, and therefore “A” is appended to reference codes forthe modulated signal A signal processing system, and “B” is appended toreference codes for the corresponding modulated signal B signalprocessing system.

Frame configuration signal generation section 115 of multi-antennatransmitting apparatus 100 outputs control signal 116 with frameconfiguration related information, encoding method information,modulation method information, and so forth. Encoding section 102A hasmodulated signal A data 101A and control signal 116 as input, executesencoding based on control signal 116, and outputs post-encoding data103A.

Arranging (interleaving) section 104A has post-encoding data 103A andcontrol signal 116 as input, arranges (interleaves) post-encoding data103A based on control signal 116, and outputs post-arrangement data105A.

Modulation section 106A has post-arrangement data 105A and controlsignal 116 as input, executes BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, or 64QAM modulationbased on control signal 116, and outputs baseband signal 107A.

Serial/parallel conversion section (S/P) 108A has baseband signal 107Aas input, executes serial/parallel conversion, and outputs parallelsignal 109A. Inverse Fourier transform section (ifft) 110A has parallelsignal 109A as input, executes a Fourier transform, and outputspost-Fourier-transform signal 111A—that is, an OFDM signal. Radiosection 112A has post-Fourier-transform signal 111A as input, and formsmodulated signal A transmit signal 113A by executing predetermined radioprocessing such as frequency conversion and amplification. Transmitsignal A is output as a radio wave from antenna 114A.

The same processing is also executed for modulated signal B by means ofencoding section 102B, arranging section 104B, modulation section 106B,serial/parallel conversion section (S/P) 108B, inverse Fourier transformsection (ifft) 110B, and radio section 112B, and modulated signal Btransmit signal 113B is transmitted as a radio wave from antenna 114B.

FIG. 10 shows an example of the frame configurations of modulated signalA and modulated signal B transmitted from antennas 114A and 114B ofmulti-antenna transmitting apparatus 100. FIG. 10 (a) shows a frameconfiguration of modulated signal A transmitted from antenna 114A, andFIG. 10 (b) shows a frame configuration of modulated signal Btransmitted from antenna 114B. In this embodiment, transmission schemeusing MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) spatial multiplexing is usedas the communication method, and therefore modulated signal A andmodulated signal B symbols of the same carrier and the same time aretransmitted simultaneously from different antennas, and multiplexedspatially.

A preamble placed at the start of a frame is for estimating channelcondition. A receiver estimates channel condition using the preamble,and can separate modulated signal A and modulated signal B by executingZF (Zero Forcing) or MMSE (Minimum Mean Square Error) processing.

Pilot symbols placed in the time direction of carrier Y are symbols usedby a receiving apparatus to estimate and eliminate frequency offset thatcannot be eliminated by means of the preamble and distortion(amplitude/phase) due to device characteristics.

Data symbols are symbols for transmitting data, and are transmittedafter the preamble.

FIG. 11 shows the configuration of a multi-antenna receiving apparatusthat receives and demodulates a signal transmitted from multi-antennatransmitting apparatus 100.

Radio section 303_1 of a multi-antenna receiving apparatus 300 hasreceived signal 302_1 received by antenna 301_1 as input, executesamplification, frequency conversion, and so forth, and outputs basebandsignal 304_1. Fourier transform section (fft) 305_1 has baseband signal304_1 as input, executes a Fourier transform, and outputspost-Fourier-transform signal 306_1.

Modulated signal A channel condition estimation section 307_1 haspost-Fourier-transform signal 306_1 as input, extracts the modulatedsignal A preamble shown in FIG. 10 (a), estimates modulated signal Achannel condition based on this preamble, and outputs modulated signal Achannel condition estimation signal 308_1.

Modulated signal B channel condition estimation section 309_1 haspost-Fourier-transform signal 306_1 as input, extracts the modulatedsignal B preamble shown in FIG. 10 (b), estimates modulated signal Bchannel condition based on this preamble, and outputs modulated signal Bchannel condition estimation signal 310_1.

Radio section 303_2, Fourier transform section 305_2, modulated signal Achannel condition estimation section 307_2, and modulated signal Bchannel condition estimation section 309_2 operate in the same way asdescribed above.

Signal processing section 311 has post-Fourier-transform signals 306_1and 306_2, modulated signal A channel condition estimation signals 308_1and 308_2, and modulated signal B channel condition estimation signals310_1 and 310_2 as input, and obtains modulated signal A receive data312A and modulated signal B receive data 312B by performing ZF (ZeroForcing), MMSE (Minimum Mean Square Error), or suchlike processing, andalso performing decoding. The operation of signal processing section 311will be described in detail later herein using FIG. 13.

FIG. 12 shows a model of communication between a multi-antennatransmitting apparatus and a multi-antenna receiving apparatus. Here, amodulated signal transmitted from an antenna 409A is designated Txa(t),and a modulated signal transmitted from an antenna 409B is designatedTxb(t) (t: time). Also, if channel conditions between the respectivetransmit and receive antennas are designated h11(t), h12(t), h21(t), andh22(t), a received signal received by antenna 410_1 is designatedRx1(t), and a received signal received by antenna 410_2 is designatedRx2(t), the following relational expression holds true.

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 1} \right) & \; \\{\begin{pmatrix}{{Rx}\; 1(t)} \\{{Rx}\; 2(t)}\end{pmatrix} = {\begin{pmatrix}{h\; 11(t)} & {h\; 21(t)} \\{h\; 12(t)} & {h\; 22(t)}\end{pmatrix}\begin{pmatrix}{{Txa}(t)} \\{{Txb}(t)}\end{pmatrix}}} & \lbrack 1\rbrack\end{matrix}$

FIG. 13 shows the configuration of signal processing section 311 ofmulti-antenna receiving apparatus 300. Separation/frequency offsetestimation/compensation section 401 has post-Fourier-transform signals306_1 and 306_2, modulated signal A channel condition estimation signals308_1 and 308_2, and modulated signal B channel condition estimationsignals 310_1 and 310_2 as input, and separates modulated signal A andmodulated signal B by performing Equation (1) inverse matrix computation(ZF). Also, separation/frequency offset estimation/compensation section401 estimates frequency offset and distortion (amplitude/phase) due todevice characteristics using the pilot symbols shown in FIG. 10,compensates for these based on the estimation results, and obtainsmodulated signal A post-compensation baseband signal 402A and modulatedsignal B post-compensation baseband signal 402B.

Soft decision calculation section 403A has modulated signal Apost-compensation baseband signal 402A as input, and obtains softdecision value 404A by calculating a branch metric. Deinterleavingsection 405A has soft decision value 404A as input, and obtainspost-deinterleaving soft decision value 406A by performingdeinterleaving (the reverse of the processing performed by arrangingsection 104A). Decoder 407A has post-deinterleaving soft decision value406A as input, and obtains modulated signal A receive data 408A bydecoding this post-deinterleaving soft decision value 406A.

Soft decision calculation section 403B, deinterleaving section 405B, anddecoder 407B perform the same operations as described above, and obtainmodulated signal B receive data 408B.

FIG. 14 shows an example of the relationship between the signal power tonoise power ratios (SNRs) of carriers 1 to 6 at times i, i+1, i+2, i+3,i+4, and i+5, obtained in a receiving apparatus when modulated signalsare transmitted with the frame configurations shown in FIG. 10. As shownin FIG. 14, the SNR of a data symbol falls with temporal distance fromthe preamble. This is because the frequency estimation error and theestimation error of distortion (amplitude/phase) due to devicecharacteristics in the receiving apparatus increase with temporaldistance from the preamble.

When interleaving is executed within one OFDM symbol and deinterleavingis executed by the receiving apparatus, as in FIG. 1 for example, databelonging to an OFDM symbol temporally distant from the preamble, suchas at times i+4 and i+5, is configured by means of only data symbolswith a degraded SNR in consideration of the phenomenon in FIG. 14, eventhough interleaving is executed, and therefore it is difficult to obtaincoding gain even though error correction is performed, and the errorrate performance degrades.

In a conventional system in which the transmitting and receivingapparatuses each have only one antenna, this problem can be solved veryeasily. It is only necessary to insert symbols for frequency offset anddistortion estimation, such as pilot symbols for example. In this case,pilot symbols need not be inserted so frequently, and therefore the dropin transmission speed due to pilot symbol insertion is small, and pilotsymbol insertion is not such a major disadvantage for the system.

On the other hand, in a multi-antenna system such as a MIMO system thatuses spatial multiplexing, separation symbols (comprising the preamblein FIG. 10) for separating modulated signals mixed on the transmissionpath are essential. Also, channel conditions h11 to h22 are estimatedusing these separation symbols.

Here, causes of degradation of the estimation precision of channelconditions h11 to h22 include temporal fluctuation of frequency offsetand distortion. However, it is difficult to prevent an above-describeddrop in SNR simply by inserting pilot symbols and estimating temporalfluctuation of frequency offset and distortion estimation.

This is because, in the final analysis, it is difficult to prevent anabove-described drop in SNR unless the estimation precision of channelconditions h11 to h22 is ensured. A possible method of achieving this isto increase the frequency of separation symbol insertion. That is tosay, a solution is difficult even if the frequency of pilot symbolinsertion is increased.

However, since it is necessary for separation symbols to be placed onall carriers, there is a problem of transmission speed fallingsignificantly if the frequency of separation symbol insertion isincreased. It is therefore important to improve the SNR while keepingthe frequency of separation symbol insertion as low as possible.

In this embodiment, a multi-antenna transmitting apparatus is proposedthat enables degradation of the error rate performance of data placed ina symbol distant from the preamble to be suppressed without increasingthe frequency of preamble insertion.

In this embodiment, the above-described problem is solved by acontrivance of the arrangement processing of arranging sections 104A and104B provided between encoding sections 102A and 102B and modulationsections 106A and 106B. This will now be explained in detail.

Here, arranging sections 104A and 104B perform arrangement so that inputm'th data is placed in a data symbol at the carrier p(m) position in thefrequency domain, and in a data symbol at the time q(m) position in thetime domain. This arrangement processing is expressed asπ(m)=(p(m),q(m)).

FIG. 15 and FIG. 16 show examples of arrangement processing of dataafter encoding by arranging sections 104A and 104B. By way ofillustration, FIG. 15 and FIG. 16 show examples in which dataarrangement is performed within six OFDM symbols. The preambles areomitted. In FIG. 15 and FIG. 16, (1), (2), (3) . . . indicate the orderof data placement, meaning, for example, that the data input first isplaced in data symbol (1), and the data input second is placed in datasymbol (2).

The important point in the arrangement shown in FIG. 15 and FIG. 16 isthat the 1st data and 2nd data are placed in data symbol positions ofdifferent times. For example, when encoding sections 102A and 102Bexecute block encoding processing for a block size of 6, arrangingsections 104A and 104B assign the six data items in an encoded block tosymbols at temporally different positions. Thus, for example, data afterblock encoding is assigned to symbols so thatq(1)≠q(2)≠q(3)≠q(4)≠q(5)≠q(6) and q(7)≠q(8)≠q(9)≠q(10)≠q(11)≠q(12).

By this means, it no longer happens that data with a degraded SNR arepositioned consecutively in a data sequence on which the receivingapparatus has performed deinterleaving, and therefore coding gain can beobtained by performing error correction, and degradation of the errorrate performance can be suppressed.

Taking SNR correlation in the frequency domain into consideration (SNRcorrelation being higher between close carriers), degradation of theerror rate performance can be further suppressed by arranging encodeddata so that, in addition to the above conditions,p(1)≠p(2)≠p(3)≠p(4)≠p(5)≠p(6) and p(7)≠p(8)≠p(9)≠p(10)≠p(11)≠p(12).

Thus, according to this embodiment, by providing arranging sections 104Aand 104B that arrange encoded data so that encoded data within the sameencoded block is assigned to a plurality of data symbols in the timedirection, it is possible to prevent all data within an encoded blockfrom being assigned to data symbols at positions distant from thepreamble. In other words, distances from the preamble can be madevirtually uniform among encoded blocks, making it possible to implementmulti-antenna transmitting apparatus 100 that enables degradation of theerror rate performance due to distance from the preamble to besuppressed. In addition, the influence of notches due to fading can alsobe reduced.

In the description of this embodiment, a frame configuration configuredby means of only a preamble, data symbols, and pilot symbols, such asshown in FIG. 10, has been taken as an example, but the frameconfiguration is not limited to this, and symbols that transmit controlinformation, for example, may also be included. In short, thisembodiment is suitable for application to a wide range of cases in whichdata symbols are preceded by a preamble.

In the configuration example shown in FIG. 9, a configuration isillustrated in which encoding sections 102A and 102B are providedrespectively for modulated signals A and B, but this embodiment can alsobe applied to a configuration in which encoding processing of bothmodulated signals A and B is performed by one encoding section.

FIG. 17 shows an example of such a configuration. In FIG. 17, in whichparts corresponding to those in FIG. 9 are assigned the same referencecodes as in FIG. 9, encoding section 102 and arranging section 104 inmulti-antenna transmitting apparatus 500 are the only points ofdifference from multi-antenna transmitting apparatus 100.

Encoding section 102 has data 101 and control signal 116 as input,executes encoding based on control signal 116, and outputs post-encodingdata 103. Arranging section 104 has post-encoding data 103 and controlsignal 116 as input, arranges post-encoding data 103 based on frameconfiguration information contained in control signal 116, and suppliespost-arrangement data 105A and 105B to modulation sections 106A and 106Brespectively.

FIG. 18, FIG. 19, and FIG. 20 show examples of arrangement processing ofdata after encoding by arranging section 104.

In FIG. 18, 6-bit data after encoding is first assigned to modulatedsignal A data symbols of different times (corresponding to (1), (2),(3), (4), (5), (6) in FIG. 18). Then 6-bit data after encoding isassigned to modulated signal B data symbols of different times(corresponding to (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12) in FIG. 18). Next,6-bit data after encoding is assigned to modulated signal A. In thisway, data after encoding is assigned to data symbols of different times,and is assigned alternately to modulated signal A and modulated signalB. By this means, not only can the same effect be obtained as in theassignment examples shown in FIG. 15 and FIG. 16, but in addition, sinceassignment is performed to modulated signal A and modulated signal Balternately, a further effect can be achieved of being able to obtainspatial diversity gain.

In FIG. 19, data assignment is performed alternately to modulated signalA and modulated signal B. At this time, 6-bit data in which onlyodd-numbered items have been extracted, or 6-bit data in which onlyeven-numbered items have been extracted, is placed in symbols ofdifferent times. This is clear if, for example, data symbols (1), (3),(5), (7), (9), (11) of modulated signal A are looked at. By this means,not only can the same effect be obtained as in the assignment examplesshown in FIG. 15 and FIG. 16, but in addition, since assignment isperformed to modulated signal A and modulated signal B alternately, afurther effect can be achieved of being able to obtain spatial diversitygain.

In FIG. 20, data is first assigned to modulated signal A, and then datais assigned to modulated signal B. These are then placed in symbols ofdifferent times, taking 6 bits after encoding as a unit. By this means,the same effect can be obtained as in the assignment examples shown inFIG. 15 and FIG. 16.

FIG. 21 shows the configuration of the signal processing section of amulti-antenna receiving apparatus that receives and demodulates signalstransmitted from multi-antenna transmitting apparatus 500 configured asshown in FIG. 17. The overall configuration of the multi-antennareceiving apparatus here may be as shown in FIG. 11, and signalprocessing section 311 may be configured as shown in FIG. 21.

Signal processing section 311 in FIG. 21, in which parts correspondingto those in FIG. 13 are assigned the same reference codes as in FIG. 13,has a similar configuration to signal processing section 311 in FIG. 13,differing only in having only one deinterleaving section 405 and onedecoder 407. Deinterleaving section 405 has modulated signal A softdecision value 404A and modulated signal B soft decision value 404B asinput, performs deinterleaving according to the frame configuration (thereverse of the processing performed by arranging section 104 in FIG.17), and obtains post-deinterleaving soft decision value 406. Decoder407 has post-deinterleaving soft decision value 406 as input, andobtains receive data 408 by decoding this post-deinterleaving softdecision value 406.

Embodiment 3

In this embodiment, an actual mode is described for a case in which LDPCencoding is performed by a multi-antenna transmitting apparatus. Inaddition, an actual mode is described for a case in which adaptivemodulation is performed.

FIG. 22 shows an example of assignment of post-encoding data to datasymbols by arranging sections 104A and 104B when encoding sections 102Aand 102B in FIG. 9 perform LDPC encoding with respective post-encodingblock sizes of 980 bits. In this case, 980 bits in one encoded block areassigned to 980 modulated signal A symbols A(1), A(2), . . . , A(980).Here, (1), (2), . . . , (980) indicate the data order. Similarly, 980bits in one encoded block are assigned to 980 modulated signal B symbolsB(1), B(2), . . . , B(980). Thus, data (bits) in one encoded block areassigned to a plurality of data symbols. By this means, burst errors canbe suppressed more effectively than when data in one encoded block isassigned to a small number of data symbols.

FIG. 23 shows an example of assignment of post-encoding data to datasymbols by arranging section 104 when encoding section 102 in FIG. 17performs LDPC encoding with a block size of 980 bits. In this case, 980bits in one encoded block are assigned to 980 modulated signal A andmodulated signal B symbols. Here, (1), (2), . . . , (980) indicate thedata order. By assigning data (bits) in one encoded block to a pluralityof data symbols and a plurality of antennas in this way, burst errorscan be suppressed more effectively than when data in one encoded blockis assigned to a small number of data symbols, and a further effect canalso be achieved of being able to obtain spatial diversity gain.

Next, a mode will be described for a case in which the present inventionis applied to a multi-antenna transmitting apparatus that performsadaptive modulation (that is, switches the modulation method) accordingto the communication conditions.

FIG. 24 shows the configuration of a multi-antenna transmittingapparatus that performs adaptive modulation. Multi-antenna transmittingapparatus 600 in FIG. 24, in which parts corresponding to those in FIG.9 are assigned the same reference codes as in FIG. 9, is provided in abase station, for example. Receiving apparatus 2303 has received signal2302 received by antenna 2301 as input, performs reception processingand obtains communication condition information transmitted by acommunicating-party terminal (for example, information such as the biterror rate, packet error rate, frame error rate, received signalstrength, and multipath conditions), determines the modulation methodtherefrom, and outputs this as control information 2304. Frameconfiguration signal generation section 115 has control information 2304as input, determines the modulation method and frame configuration basedon control information 2304, and sends these to modulation sections 106Aand 106B, encoding sections 102A and 102B, and arranging sections 104Aand 104B as frame configuration signal 116.

Arranging sections 104A and 104B change their arrangement according tothe modulation method in the same way as described in Embodiment 1.

FIG. 25 shows an example of the configuration of a communicating-partyterminal that performs communication with multi-antenna transmittingapparatus 600. Transmitting apparatus 2403 of multi-antenna receivingapparatus 700 in FIG. 25, in which parts corresponding to those in FIG.11 are assigned the same reference codes as in FIG. 11, has transmitdata 2402, baseband signals 304_1 and 304_2, and receive data 312A and312B as input, and, for example, estimates the received signal strengthfrom baseband signals 304_1 and 304_2, finds the bit error rate, packeterror rate, and frame error rate from receive data 312A and 312B, formstransmit signal 2404 containing these items of information and transmitdata, and outputs this as a radio wave from antenna 2405. By this means,the modulation method of the base station (multi-antenna transmittingapparatus 600) is changed.

The method of changing the modulation method is not limited to this, anda similar effect can be achieved by having a communicating-partyterminal specify a desired modulation method, or having the base stationreceive a modulated signal transmitted from a communicating-partyterminal, and determine the modulation method of a modulated signal tobe transmitted based on the reception state of the received signal.

Embodiment 4

In this embodiment, a contrivance of the assignment method of last blockdata after LDPC encoding will be described. In FIG. 26, the verticalaxis indicates frequency, with data being transmitted using carriers 1to n, and the horizontal axis indicates time.

In FIG. 26, it is assumed that one packet of data is first transmittedusing 16QAM. Therefore, four post-encoding blocks #1 to #4 aretransmitted in parallel in 980 symbols, as in the method described inEmbodiment 1, for example. Assuming that the quantity of one packet ofdata is variable, the amount of data transmitted last will notnecessarily be an amount that fills four encoded blocks in 16QAM. Whatis important here is for one data symbol to be configured by collectingtogether intra-block block encoded data of different encoded blocks, andthe configuration method of Embodiment 5 described later herein may beused.

In this embodiment, if the number of encoded blocks transmitted last isone, BPSK is selected as the modulation method of the last block, andonly one encoded block, #1, is transmitted, as shown in FIG. 26A.

If the number of encoded blocks transmitted last is more than one andnot more than two, QPSK is selected as the modulation method of the lastblocks, and two encoded blocks, #1 and #2, are transmitted, as shown inFIG. 26B. In this case, the arrangement as described in FIG. 5 (b), FIG.6 (b), FIG. 7 (b), or FIG. 8 (b) may be performed.

If the number of encoded blocks transmitted last is more than two, 16QAMis selected as the modulation method of the last blocks, and fourencoded blocks, #1 to #4, for example, are transmitted, as shown in FIG.26C. In this case, the arrangement as described in FIG. 5 (c), FIG. 6(c), FIG. 7 (c), or FIG. 8 (c) may be performed.

By transmitting in this way, one encoded block of data is alwaystransmitted by means of 980 symbols, enabling the influence of fadingnotches to be reduced, and reception quality to be improved.

As another assignment method, 16QAM may be selected regardless of thenumber of encoded blocks, and “0” dummy data, for example, may betransmitted for the entire deficient amount of data. With suchtransmission, one encoded block is still always transmitted by means of980 symbols, enabling the influence of fading notches to be reduced, andreception quality to be improved.

The above operations are extremely important in order to make receptionquality as uniform as possible when communication based on packet isperformed. That is to say, if data of the last encoded block istransmitted as fewer than 980 symbols, the error rate performance of thelast encoded block will degrade, and the probability of packet erroroccurrence will increase. The method described in this embodiment iseffective in preventing this.

Examples for Comparison

Using FIG. 27, conventionally commonly implemented assignment methodsand their drawbacks will now be described for comparison with the methodof uniformly assigning encoded block data to a plurality of symbolsaccording to the present invention.

FIG. 27A shows the received field strength state in a 980-symbolinterval as an example of the relationship between time and receivedfield strength as a communication condition.

FIG. 27B shows an example of a frame configuration when the modulationmethod is BPSK. As an example, FIG. 27B shows the case of a multicarriertransmission method that uses carrier 1 to carrier n, such as OFDM forinstance. Therefore, the vertical axis is the frequency domain, on whichcarriers 1 to n are represented. When the modulation method is BPSK, 980symbols are necessary to transmit one post-encoding block (block #1) asshown in FIG. 27B.

On the other hand, when the modulation method is 16QAM, since 4 bits canbe transmitted in one symbol with 16QAM, 245 symbols are necessary totransmit one post-encoding block. Therefore, if 980 symbols are used,four blocks—block #1, block #2, block #3, and block #4—can betransmitted.

Conventionally, as with BPSK, the usual order of assignment in the timedirection is block #1 symbols, block #2 symbols, block #3 symbols, block#4 symbols, as shown in FIG. 27C.

When BPSK is used as in FIG. 27B, there are times when the receivedfield strength is high and times when the received field strength is lowfor one encoded block even with the communication conditions as in FIG.27A, and therefore if decoding is performed in encoded block units thepossibility of errors being corrected through the influence of data withhigh received field strength is high.

On the other hand, when 16QAM is used as in FIG. 27C, the received fieldstrength is high and therefore reception quality is good for block #1and block #3, whereas the received field strength is low and thereforereception quality is poor for block #2 and block #4. Since the number ofsymbols required by one encoded block decreases as the number ofmodulation multi-values of the modulation method increases in this way,the system is susceptible to the influence of received field strengthnotches due to fading. That is to say, the system is susceptible to afall in reception quality due to notches.

As explained in the above embodiments, a transmitting apparatus of thepresent invention effectively solves this problem without changing thecode length (block size).

Embodiment 5

In this embodiment, a simple variant of Embodiment 1 will be described.That is to say, the basic configuration whereby “one data symbol isconfigured by collecting together intra-block block encoded data ofdifferent encoded blocks” is the same in this embodiment as inEmbodiment 1, with this embodiment presenting a variant thereof.

An example of the configuration of a transmitting apparatus in thisembodiment is as shown in FIG. 2, and the operation thereof is alsosimilar to that of Embodiment 1. Furthermore, the configuration relatingto LDPC code generation processing by encoding section 11 in thisembodiment is as shown in FIG. 3, and the operation thereof is alsosimilar to that of Embodiment 1.

In this embodiment, a case is described by way of example in whichmodulation processing by modulation section 15 is QPSK and 16QAM. Thatis to say, in the case of this embodiment, it is assumed that modulationsection 15 performs signal point arrangement and bit arrangement such asshown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 28 shows to which post-modulation symbols a transmitting apparatusof this embodiment assigns bits in each LDPC encoded block.Specifically, FIG. 28 shows the symbols in which encoded data in oneblock (data after LDPC encoding) configured by means of 980 bits areplaced. The horizontal axis indicates the symbol time sequence, and thevertical axis indicates the bit numbers configuring one symbol—that is,b1 and b2 in the case of QPSK, and b1, b2, b3, and b4 in the case of16QAM.

In FIG. 28, #X-Y indicates the Y'th bit (bit number Y among 980 bits) ofthe X'th encoded block. For example, #1-1 indicates the 1st bit of the1st encoded block. Similarly, #2-979 indicates the 979th bit of the 2ndencoded block.

FIG. 28A shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulation methodis QPSK. In this embodiment, when the modulation method is QPSK, twobits (b1, b2) are transmitted in one symbol, and data of the 1st encodedblock is transmitted using both bits. Therefore, one encoded blockconfigured by means of 980 bits is transmitted using 490 symbols.

FIG. 28B shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulation methodis 16QAM. When the modulation method is 16QAM, four bits (b1, b2, b3,b4) are transmitted in one symbol, and therefore two post-encodingblocks configured by means of 980 bits can be transmitted by means of490 symbols. A characteristic of bit assignment to each symbol here isthat encoded data in one block are assigned to a plurality of symbols.Specifically, data #1-1 to #1-980 of post-encoding block #1 are assignedto bits b1 and b2 of 980 16QAM symbols, and data #2-1 to #2-980 ofpost-encoding block #2 are assigned to bits b3 and b4 of 980 symbols.

By this means, bits (data) in each encoded block can be dispersedtemporally (or on a frequency basis (particularly in the case of OFDM orsuchlike multicarrier transmission), or spatially (particularly in thecase of transmission scheme using MIMO scheme)) across a number ofsymbols equal to that of QPSK, enabling an overall drop in the qualityof data within an encoded block because of a notch due to fading to beavoided. Thus, since the probability of most data within an encodedblock being erroneous in a burst fashion is low, the error rateperformance can be improved.

FIG. 28C shows an example of a frame configuration in this embodimentwhen single-carrier transmission is used. Preamble 2801 comprisessymbols used by a receiving apparatus, for example, to perform signaldetection, frequency offset estimation and compensation, and gaincontrol. Control information symbols 2802 are symbols for transmittingmodulation method information, coding rate information, and packetlength information, for example. Data symbols 2803 are symbols fortransmitting data, with data being transmitted using the configurationin FIG. 28A when the modulation method is QPSK, and being transmittedusing the configuration in FIG. 28B when the modulation method is 16QAM.

FIG. 29 shows an example of the configuration of a transmittingapparatus of this embodiment. In FIG. 29, items that operate in the sameway as in FIG. 2 are assigned the same reference codes as in FIG. 2.Transmitting apparatus 2900 has selector 2901. Selector 2901 hastransmit data S1 and control signal S10 as input, and assigns transmitdata S1 according to modulation method information included in controlsignal S10. In this embodiment, when the modulation method is QPSK,selector 2901 outputs assignment data #1 to encoding section 11_1 asoutput signal 2901_1. At this time, selector 2901 does not output outputsignal 2901_2 to encoding section 11_2. On the other hand, when themodulation method is 16QAM, selector 2901 outputs assignment data #1 toencoding section 11_1 as output signal 2901_1, and also outputsassignment data #2 to encoding section 11_2 as output signal 2901_2.

Encoding sections 11_1 and 11_2 encode their respective input data, andoutput post-encoding data 2902_1 and 2902_2. When the modulation methodis QPSK, encoding section 11_2 does not perform an encoding operation.Encoding sections 11_1 and 11_2 can obtain modulation method informationfrom control signal S10.

Modulation section 15 has post-encoding data 2902_1 and 2902_2 andcontrol signal S10 as input, obtains transmit symbols—that is, basebandsignal S3 by performing modulation according to the modulation method ofcontrol signal S10, and outputs this baseband signal S3 to radio section16. At this time, modulation section 15 also adds a preamble and controlinformation symbols. Subsequent operation of radio section 16 is thesame as in FIG. 2.

In transmitting apparatus 2900 in FIG. 29, encoding sections 11_1 and11_2 are provided in parallel, and the higher the number of modulationmulti-values of the modulation method, the more encoding sections areoperated in parallel. By this means, a higher transmission processingspeed is possible than with the configuration shown in FIG. 2. Aparticular advantage is that even if a switch is made to a modulationmethod with a large number of modulation multi-values, a symbol rateequal to that of a modulation method with a small number of modulationmulti-values can be maintained. However, even with the configurationshown in FIG. 2, it is possible to form a transmit frame such as shownin FIG. 28. Although the configuration in FIG. 2 achieves a lowertransmission processing speed than the configuration in FIG. 29, itoffers a lower computational complexity since it has fewer encodingsections.

FIG. 30 shows an example of the configuration of a receiving apparatusin this embodiment. In receiving apparatus 3000, received signal 3002received by antenna 3001 is input to radio section 3003, baseband signal3004 is obtained by executing frequency conversion, quadraturedemultiplexing, and suchlike processing on received signal 3002, andthis baseband signal 3004 is output.

Control section 3005 has baseband signal 3004 as input, detects preamble2801 and control information symbols 2802 shown in FIG. 28C, performssignal detection, frequency offset estimation, and channel estimationbased on these symbols and also extracts modulation method information,and outputs control signal 3006 including these items of information tothe other sections.

Soft value creation section 3007 has baseband signal 3004 and controlsignal 3006 as input, obtains soft value signal 3008 by calculating asoft value of each bit for decoding from channel estimation informationincluded in control signal 3006 and baseband signal 3004, and outputsthis soft value signal 3008.

Assignment section 3009 has control signal 3006 and soft value signal3008 as input, and if modulation method information included in controlsignal 3006 indicates QPSK, outputs soft value signal 3008 to decodingsection 3011_1 as soft value #1 signal 3010_1. On the other hand, if themodulation method information indicates 16QAM, assignment section 3009assigns soft value signal 3008 to soft value #1 signal 3010_1 and softvalue #2 signal 3010_2, and outputs these to decoding sections 3011_1and 3011_2 respectively. Here, soft value #1 signal 3010_1 is a softvalue relating to block #1 in FIG. 28A and FIG. 28B, and soft value #2signal 3010_2 is a soft value relating to block #2 in FIG. 28B.

Decoding section 3011_1 has soft value #1 signal 3010_1 and controlsignal 3006 as input, obtains post-decoding data #1 signal 3012_1 byperforming decoding based on soft value #1 signal 3010_1, and outputsthis post-decoding data #1 signal 3012_1. This post-decoding data #1signal 3012_1 corresponds to #1 block data in FIG. 28A and FIG. 28B.

Decoding section 3011_2 has soft value #2 signal 3010_2 and controlsignal 3006 as input, obtains post-decoding data #2 signal 3012_2 byperforming decoding based on soft value #2 signal 3010_2, and outputsthis post-decoding data #2 signal 3012_2. This post-decoding data #2signal 3012_2 corresponds to #2 block data in FIG. 28B. Decoding section3011_2 does not perform a decoding operation when the modulation methodis QPSK.

Parallel/serial conversion section 3013 has post-decoding data #1 signal3012_1, post-decoding data #2 signal 3012_2, and control signal 3006 asinput, obtains post-rearrangement data 3014 by performing rearrangementaccording to the modulation method, and outputs this post-rearrangementdata 3014.

By means of the above configuration, when a modulated signal with aframe configuration such as shown in FIG. 28 is received fromtransmitting apparatus 10 or 3000 having the configuration as shown inFIG. 2 or FIG. 29, post-rearrangement data 3014 corresponding totransmit data S1 can be obtained from the received signal.

In particular, in a receiving apparatus of this embodiment, decodingsections are provided in parallel as shown in FIG. 30, and the higherthe number of modulation multi-values of a received signal, the moredecoding sections are operated in parallel. By this means, a higherreception processing speed is possible. A particular advantage is thateven if the number of modulation multi-values of a received signal islarge, reception processing can be performed at a symbol rate equal tothat of a received signal with a small number of modulationmulti-values. Furthermore, even if a modulated signal with a frameconfiguration such as shown in FIG. 28 is transmitted in order toimprove the error rate performance on the receiving side, use ofapparatus 3000 having the configuration shown in FIG. 30 enablesreception processing to be performed without lowering the symbol rate.

As described above, according to this embodiment reception quality canbe improved, as with Embodiment 1, by arranging block encoded data sothat one symbol is configured by collecting together block encoded dataof more blocks, in the same way as in Embodiment 1.

Furthermore, according to this embodiment, by placing a plurality ofencoding sections in parallel on the transmitting side, and providingfor more encoding sections to be operated in parallel the larger thenumber of modulation multi-values of the modulation method, even if aswitch is made to a modulation method with a large number of modulationmulti-values, a symbol rate equal to that of a modulation method with asmall number of modulation multi-values can be maintained. Also, byplacing a plurality of decoding sections in parallel on the receivingside, and providing for more decoding sections to be operated inparallel the larger the number of modulation multi-values of a receivedsignal, even if the number of modulation multi-values of a receivedsignal is large, reception processing can be performed at a symbol rateequal to that of a received signal with a small number of modulationmulti-values. That is to say, a faster symbol rate can be handledeasily, enabling faster data transmission to be implemented.

Whereas in Embodiment 1 examples were described in which block data isassigned to each symbol in bit units, as shown in FIG. 5 to FIG. 8 forinstance, in this embodiment an example has been described in whichblock data is assigned to each symbol in 2-bit units, as shown in FIG.28 for instance. That is to say, to consider 16QAM, in Embodiment 1block data was assigned independently to each of bits b1, b2, b3, and b4configuring one symbol, whereas in this embodiment bits b1 and b2 aretreated as one unit and block data #1 is assigned to these two bits, andbits b3 and b4 are treated as one unit and block data #2 is assigned tothese two bits. However, a transmitting apparatus and receivingapparatus described in this embodiment can also be applied to a frameconfiguration such as described in Embodiment 1. FIG. 31C shows anexample of a frame configuration allowing such application.

In this embodiment, processing for a block code such as an LDPC code hasbeen described as an example, but the same method as described above canalso be applied to a trellis code such as a turbo code or convolutionalcode. A detailed description will be given in Embodiment 6.

In this embodiment, configurations of a transmitting apparatus andreceiving apparatus that perform single-carrier communication have beendescribed as an example, but this embodiment is not limited to this, andcan be similarly implemented with a transmitting apparatus and receivingapparatus that perform OFDM or suchlike multicarrier communication.

Furthermore, this embodiment can be similarly implemented with atransmitting apparatus and receiving apparatus that performmulti-antenna communication such as communication using MIMO scheme. Thetechnology described in this embodiment can be widely appliedirrespective of the multiplexing method.

In particular, with a multicarrier method such as OFDM, a method ofarranging symbols is to arrange them on the frequency domain—that is, inthe (sub-) carrier direction—as well as the time domain (see FIG. 10,FIG. 15, FIG. 26, and so forth, for example).

The technology of this embodiment can be applied to a case in whichsymbols are aligned on the time domain or a case in which symbols arealigned in the frequency domain, and enables the same effect asdescribed above to be obtained in either case. Furthermore, thetechnology of this embodiment can also be applied, and enables the sameeffect as described above to be obtained, when symbols are aligned onthe space axis, as in the case of a transmission scheme using MIMOscheme.

Embodiment 6

In Embodiment 1 and Embodiment 5, cases have been described in which thepresent invention is applied to a block code such as an LDPC code. Inthis embodiment, a case is described in which the present invention isapplied to a trellis code such as a turbo code or convolutional code.

A characteristic of this embodiment is that, after data formedsequentially by trellis encoding are assigned to a plurality of symbolsto form transmit symbols, those transmit symbols are interleaved insymbol units.

By this means, processing similar to random bit interleave processingcan be performed at high speed with a low computational complexity. Thatis to say, in this embodiment, processing that assigns sequentiallyformed trellis encoded data across a plurality of symbols is extremelysimple processing in comparison with conventional random bit interleaveprocessing, and involves only the execution of simple processing forexecuting symbol-unit interleaving on those symbols, enabling processingequivalent to bit interleaving to be performed with a simple circuit ascompared with conventional bit interleaving.

FIG. 32A and FIG. 32B show to which post-modulation symbolsconvolutionally encoded data are assigned, for example, in thisembodiment. The horizontal axis indicates the symbol time sequence, andthe vertical axis indicates the bit numbers configuring one symbol—thatis, b1 and b2 in the case of QPSK, and b1, b2, b3, and b4 in the case of16QAM.

In these drawings, #X-Y indicates the Y'th bit obtained by X'th encodingprocessing. For example, #1-1 indicates the 1st bit obtained by the 1stencoding processing. Similarly, #2-100 indicates the 100th bit obtainedby the 2nd encoding processing. The arrangements in FIG. 32 show theorder before symbol interleaving, and symbol interleaving is performedon 100 symbols. Symbol interleaving will be described in detail usingFIG. 33 and FIG. 34.

FIG. 32A shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulation methodis QPSK. When the modulation method is QPSK, two bits (b1, b2) aretransmitted in one symbol. In this embodiment, 1st encoded data and 2ndencoded data are transmitted using both of these bits. Here, 1st encodeddata (#1-1, #1-2, #1-3 . . . ) is data on which one trellis encoding isexecuted, and 2nd encoded data (#2-1, #2-2, #2-3 . . . ) is data onwhich one trellis encoding is executed.

Here, one trellis encoding process refers to one collection of encodeddata sequentially encoded and output by one trellis encoder. Therefore,as a method of creating 1st encoded data and 2nd encoded data, differentencoders may be provided as described later herein, for example, withencoded data obtained by a 1st encoder being taken as 1st encoded data,and encoded data obtained by a 2nd encoder being taken as 2nd encodeddata.

Alternatively, for example, among encoded data output sequentially by asingle encoder, the first to 100th items of encoded data may be taken as1st encoded data, and the 101st to 200th items of encoded data may betaken as 2nd encoded data.

FIG. 32B shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulation methodis 16QAM. When the modulation method is 16QAM, four bits (b1, b2, b3,b4) are transmitted in one symbol. In this embodiment, four encoded dataare transmitted using these four bits.

In FIG. 32B, data relating to 1st encoded data #1 is transmitted using16QAM bit b1. Similarly, data relating to 2nd encoded data #2 istransmitted using 16QAM bit b2, data relating to 3rd encoded data #3 istransmitted using 16QAM bit b3, and data relating to 4th encoded data #4is transmitted using 16QAM bit b4.

By this means, encoded bits (data) can be dispersed temporally (or on afrequency basis (particularly in the case of OFDM or suchlikemulticarrier transmission), or spatially (particularly in the case oftransmission scheme using MIMO scheme)) across a number of symbols equalto that of QPSK, enabling an overall drop in the quality of encoded databecause of a notch due to fading to be avoided. Thus, since theprobability of data being erroneous in a burst fashion is low, the errorrate performance can be improved. Naturally, the same effect can also beobtained for QPSK, since similar operations are performed in bit units.

FIG. 32C shows an example of a frame configuration in this embodimentwhen single-carrier transmission is used. The frame configuration inFIG. 32C is the same as that in FIG. 28C already described, andtherefore a description thereof will be omitted here.

FIG. 33 shows an example of the configuration of a transmittingapparatus of this embodiment. In FIG. 33, items that operate in the sameway as in FIG. 2 and FIG. 29 are assigned the same reference codes as inFIG. 2 and FIG. 29. Selector 2901 has transmit data S1 and controlsignal S10 as input, and assigns transmit data S1 according tomodulation method information included in control signal S10.

In this embodiment, when the modulation method is QPSK, selector 2901outputs assignment data #1 to encoding section 11_1 as output signal2901_1, and outputs assignment data #2 to encoding section 11_2 asoutput signal 2901_2. At this time, selector 2901 does not output outputsignals 2901_3 and 2901_4 to encoding sections 11_3 and 11_4.

On the other hand, when the modulation method is 16QAM, selector 2901outputs assignment data #1 to encoding section 11_1 as output signal2901_1, outputs assignment data #2 to encoding section 11_2 as outputsignal 2901_2, outputs assignment data #3 to encoding section 11_3 asoutput signal 2901_3, and outputs assignment data #4 to encoding section11_4 as output signal 2901_4.

Encoding sections 11_1, 11_2, 11_3, and 11_4 obtain encoded data 2902_1,2902_2, 2902_3, and 2902_4 by performing trellis encoding of theirrespective input data, and output these encoded data. When themodulation method is QPSK, encoding sections 11_3 and 11_4 do notperform an encoding operation. Encoding sections 11_1 to 11_4 can obtainmodulation method information from control signal S10.

Mapping section 3304 has encoded data 2902_1, 2902_2, 2902_3, and2902_4, and control signal S10 as input, obtains transmit symbols thatis, baseband signal 3305—by performing the mapping processing shown inFIG. 32A in the case of QPSK and the mapping processing shown in FIG.32B in the case of 16QAM, and outputs this baseband signal 3305 tointerleaver 3301.

Interleaver 3301 has baseband signal 3305 as input, executes symbolinterleave processing on this signal, and outputs post-interleavingbaseband signal 3302. Modulation section 3303 band-limitspost-interleaving baseband signal 3302 and outputs post-band-limitingbaseband signal S3.

A major advantage of transmitting apparatus 3300 of this embodiment liesin its interleave processing. This point will now be explained indetail.

Generally, an interleaver is either a bit interleaver that performsinterleave processing in bit units or a symbol interleaver that performsinterleave processing in symbol units. Bit interleave processing has agreater effect of improving reception quality than symbol interleaveprocessing.

Interleaver 3301 of transmitting apparatus 3300 of this embodimentinterleaves symbols obtained by mapping section 3304, and is thus asymbol interleaver. However, in this embodiment, symbol interleaveprocessing is performed after data symbols have been formed byperforming mapping by means of mapping section 3304 such that encodeddata 2902_1 to 2902_4 formed sequentially by encoding sections 11_1 to11_4 are not successively included in the same symbol, enablingprocessing equivalent to bit interleaving to be performed.

Specifically, in this embodiment, symbol interleaving is performed byinterleaver 3301 by placing interleaver 3301 in a stage subsequent tomapping section 3304.

Since a frame configuration is set as shown in FIG. 32 in thisembodiment, executing symbol interleaving results in encoded data #1,#2, #3, and #4 equivalent to data on which bit interleaving has beenexecuted. That is to say, with this embodiment, having symbols formed asshown in FIG. 32 by mapping section 3304 and placing symbol interleaver3301 in a later stage makes it possible for the same reception qualityto be obtained on the receiving side as when bit interleaving isexecuted.

Also, the configuration of this embodiment is superior in terms ofcomputational complexity to a configuration in which a bit interleaveris provided. This is because, in order to perform bit interleaving, theusual method conventionally used is to place an interleaver betweenencoding sections 11_1 to 11_4 and mapping section 3304, for example.However, if the interleaving function is placed between the encodingsections and mapping section in this way, four interleavers arenecessary. In contrast, only one symbol interleaver 3301 is necessary inthis embodiment.

An example of the operation of symbol interleaver 3301 will now bedescribed using FIG. 34. FIG. 34 (a) shows an example of the writingdirection and reading direction of symbol data with respect to internalmemory. As shown in FIG. 34, it is assumed that symbols are output frommapping section 3304 in the order “symbol 1”, “symbol 2”, “symbol 3”, .. . , “symbol 100”. Then interleaver 3301 performs writing to memory inthe horizontal direction in FIG. 34 (a). Also, interleaver 3301 performsreading in the vertical direction in FIG. 34 (a). By this means,post-interleaving symbols are arranged as shown in FIG. 34 (b).

FIG. 35, in which parts corresponding to those in FIG. 30 are assignedthe same reference codes as in FIG. 30, shows an example of theconfiguration of a receiving apparatus of this embodiment. FIG. 35differs from FIG. 30 mainly in having deinterleaver 3501 inserted inorder to restore symbols interleaved by transmitting apparatus 3300 totheir original order, and in having four decoding sections 3011_1 to3011_4 corresponding to the four encoding sections 11_1 to 11_4.

By means of the above configuration, receiving apparatus 3500 canreceive a modulated signal transmitted from transmitting apparatus 3300in FIG. 33 and obtain post-decoding data 3014. In particular, receivingapparatus 3500 is able to perform high-speed operation by havingdecoding sections 3011_1 to 3011_4 provided in parallel. Since receivingapparatus 3500 receives and decodes a signal equivalent to abit-interleaved signal, it can obtain decoded data 3014 having a gooderror rate performance.

As described above, according to this embodiment, by providing encodingsections 11_1 to 11_4 that perform trellis encoding of transmit data,mapping section 3304 that forms data symbols by performing mapping suchthat encoded data formed sequentially by trellis encoding sections 11_1to 11_4 are not successively included in the same symbol, and symbolinterleaver 3301 that interleaves the data symbols, interleaveprocessing equivalent to bit interleaving can be performed with a lowcomputational complexity, and reception quality on the receiving sidecan be effectively improved.

That is to say, mapping section 3304 need only be able to perform simpleprocessing of performing mapping such that encoded data formedsequentially by trellis encoding sections 11_1 to 11_4 are notsuccessively included in the same symbol, and symbol interleaver 3301need only execute interleaving on one line of symbols. With thiscombination of simple processes, transmitting apparatus 3300 of thisembodiment can perform processing equivalent to that of a conventionalbit interleaver, and moreover can perform that processing at high speed.The provision of encoding sections 11_1 to 11_4 in parallel contributesto the achievement of this high speed. However, simply providingencoding sections 11_1 to 11_4 in parallel and performing bitinterleaving would require the provision of a later-stage bitinterleaver for each of encoding sections 11_1 to 11_4, resulting in ahigh computational complexity. The configuration of this embodimentimplements high-speed operation while suppressing an increase incomputational complexity when bit interleaving is performed.

In this embodiment, processing by mapping section 3304 to perform bitassignment to each symbol has been described taking FIG. 32A and FIG.32B as examples, but this embodiment is not limited to this, andassignment processing such as shown in FIG. 36A and FIG. 36B, forexample, may also be performed. The essential requirement is for mappingto be performed such that encoded data (for example, #1-1, #1-2, #1-3, .. . ) formed sequentially by encoding sections 11_1 to 11_4 are notsuccessively included in the same symbol, and bit assignment to symbolsdescribed as modulation section processing in Embodiment 1 andEmbodiment 5 can also be applied as processing by mapping section 3304of this embodiment as appropriate.

In this embodiment, a case has been described in which data istransmitted after being trellis encoded. In particular, interleaver anddeinterleaver insertion positions have been described in detail. Atrellis code according to this embodiment is assumed to include aconvolutional code and a turbo code. In particular, when a turbo code isused an interleaver and deinterleaver are necessary in encoding anddecoding.

In this case, a case can be conceived of in which interleaver 3301 inFIG. 33 and deinterleaver 3501 in FIG. 35 are different from aninterleaver and deinterleaver in the case of turbo code encoding anddecoding. As a separate case, a method can also be conceived of wherebysymbol interleaver 3301 is not provided as in FIG. 33, and each turboencoder has a different interleaver. In this case, however, data encodedby each turbo encoder requires different decoding to be performed, andtherefore decoding section sharing cannot be implemented.

In this embodiment, configurations of a transmitting apparatus andreceiving apparatus that perform single-carrier communication have beendescribed as an example, but this embodiment is not limited to this, andcan be similarly implemented with a transmitting apparatus and receivingapparatus that perform OFDM or suchlike multicarrier communication.Furthermore, this embodiment can be similarly implemented with atransmitting apparatus and receiving apparatus that performmulti-antenna communication such as communication using MIMO scheme. Thetechnology described in this embodiment can be widely appliedirrespective of the multiplexing method. In particular, with amulticarrier method such as OFDM, a method of arranging symbols is toarrange them in the frequency domain—that is, in the (sub-) carrierdirection—as well as the time domain (see FIG. 10, FIG. 15, FIG. 26, andso forth, for example). The technology of this embodiment can be appliedto a case in which symbols are aligned on the time domain or a case inwhich symbols are aligned in the frequency domain, and enables the sameeffect as described above to be obtained in either case. Furthermore,the technology of this embodiment can also be applied, and enables thesame effect as described above to be obtained, when symbols are alignedon the space axis, as in the case of a transmission scheme using scheme.

That is to say, one characteristic of this embodiment is the provisionof mapping section 3304 that has a plurality of lines of encoded data asparallel input and outputs one line of data symbols, and symbolinterleaver 3301 that interleaves those data symbols.

By thus combining mapping processing and symbol interleave processing,high-speed operation of encoding processing and bit interleaveprocessing becomes possible, and a bit interleaver can be implementedthat features a configuration with a reduced computational complexity.

Embodiment 7

In this embodiment, a case is described in which the principlespresented in Embodiment 1, Embodiment 5, and Embodiment 6 above areapplied, in particular, to conjunctive coding comprising trellis codingand block coding. In this embodiment, a case is described in which blockencoded data is trellis encoded.

FIG. 37, in which parts corresponding to those in FIG. 2 and FIG. 33 areassigned the same reference codes as in FIG. 2 and FIG. 33, shows anexample of the configuration of a transmitting apparatus of thisembodiment. In transmitting apparatus 3900, selector 3901 has transmitdata S1 and control signal S10 as input. Selector 3901 assigns transmitdata S1 according to modulation method information included in controlsignal S10. In this embodiment, when the modulation method is QPSK,selector 3901 outputs assignment data #1 to block encoding section3903_1 as output signal 3902_1. At this time, selector 3901 does notoutput output signal 3902_2 to block encoding section 3903_2. On theother hand, when the modulation method is 16QAM, selector 3901 outputsassignment data #1 to block encoding section 3903_1 as output signal3902_1, and also outputs assignment data #2 to block encoding section3903_2 as output signal 3902_2.

block encoding sections 3903_1 and 3903_2 have assignment data #1(output signal 3902_1) and assignment data #2 (output signal 3902_2)respectively as input, perform block encoding of the respective inputdata, and output post-block-encoding data 3904_1, 3904_2, 3905_1, and3905_2. The operation at this time will now be described using FIG. 38.

FIG. 38 shows examples of block encoding in this embodiment. FIG. 38Ashows the operation of block encoding section 3903_1 in FIG. 37 when themodulation method is QPSK. As stated above, block encoding section3903_2 does not operate at this time.

In these drawings, #X-Y indicates the Y'th bit (bit number Y among 980bits) of the X'th encoded block. For example, #1-1 indicates the 1st bitof the 1st encoded block. Similarly, #2-979 indicates the 979th bit ofthe 2nd encoded block.

As shown in FIG. 38A, when the modulation method is QPSK, only blockencoding section 3903_1 operates, and block encoded data #1-1 to #1-980and #2-1 to #2-980 configured by means of 980 bits are generated byblock encoding section 3903_1.

On the other hand, when the modulation method is 16QAM, as shown in FIG.38B, block encoding sections 3903_1 and 3903_2 both operate and blockencoded data configured by means of 980 bits are generated by each.

Trellis encoding sections 3906-1, 3906-2, 3906-3, and 3906-4 in FIG. 37have block encoded data 3904_1, 3904_2, 3905_1, and 3905_2 respectivelyas input, perform trellis encoding of these data, and outputpost-trellis-encoding data 3907_1, 3907_2, 3907_3, and 3907_4.

The operation of trellis encoding sections 3906-1, 3906-2, 3906-3, and3906-4 and bit assignment to symbols by mapping section 3304 will now bedescribed using FIG. 39.

FIG. 39A shows an example of the trellis code state when block encodeddata generated as shown in FIG. 38A when the modulation method is QPSKare further trellis encoded. Trellis encoded data #1′-1 to #1′-980 aregenerated from block encoded data #1-1 to #1-490 by means of trellisencoding by trellis encoding section 3906-1. However, the last few bitsof #1′ data are generated by using the next block encoded data (in thecase of FIG. 38, #2 block encoded data). Then trellis encoded data #1′-1to #1′-980 are assigned by mapping section 3304 to bit b1 of two bitstransmitted by QPSK modulation.

Similarly, trellis encoded data #1″-1 to #1″-980 are generated fromblock encoded data #1-491 to #1-980 by means of trellis encoding bytrellis encoding section 3906-2. However, the last few bits of #1″ dataare generated by using the next block encoded data (in the case of FIG.38, #2 block encoded data). Then trellis encoded data #1″-1 to #1″-980are assigned by mapping section 3304 to bit b2 of two bits transmittedby QPSK modulation.

FIG. 39B shows an example of the trellis code state when block encodeddata generated as shown in FIG. 38B when the modulation method is 16QAMare further trellis encoded. Trellis encoded data #1′-1 to #1′-980 aregenerated from block encoded data #1-1 to #1-490 by means of trellisencoding by trellis encoding section 3906-1. However, the last few bitsof #1′ data are generated by using the next block encoded data (in thecase of FIG. 38, #3 block encoded data). Then trellis encoded data #1′-1to #1′-980 are assigned by mapping section 3304 to bit b1 of four bitstransmitted by 16QAM.

Similarly, trellis encoded data #1″-1 to #1″-980 are generated fromblock encoded data #1-491 to #1-980 by means of trellis encoding bytrellis encoding section 3906-2. However, the last few bits of #1″ dataare generated by using the next block encoded data (in the case of FIG.38, #3 block encoded data). Then trellis encoded data #1″-1 to #1″-980are assigned by mapping section 3304 to bit b2 of four bits transmittedby 16QAM.

Similarly, trellis encoded data #2′-1 to #2′-980 are generated fromblock encoded data #2-1 to #2-490 by means of trellis encoding bytrellis encoding section 3906-3. However, the last few bits of #2′ dataare generated by using the next block encoded data (in the case of FIG.38, #4 block encoded data). Then trellis encoded data #2′-1 to #2′-980are assigned by mapping section 3304 to bit b3 of four bits transmittedby 16QAM.

Similarly, trellis encoded data #2″-1 to #2″-980 are generated fromblock encoded data #2-491 to #2-980 by means of trellis encoding bytrellis encoding section 3906-4. However, the last few bits of #2″ dataare generated by using the next block encoded data (in the case of FIG.38, #4 block encoded data). Then trellis encoded data #2″-1 to #2″-980are assigned by mapping section 3304 to bit b4 of four bits transmittedby 16QAM.

By this means, encoded bits (data) can be dispersed temporally (or on afrequency basis (particularly in the case of OFDM or suchlikemulticarrier transmission), or spatially (particularly in the case oftransmission scheme using MIMO scheme)) across a number of symbols equalto that of QPSK, enabling an overall drop in the quality of encoded databecause of a notch due to fading to be avoided. Thus, since theprobability of data being erroneous in a burst fashion is low, the errorrate performance can be improved. The same effect can also be obtainedfor QPSK, since similar operations are performed in bit units. Anadvantage of this embodiment is that the above effect can be obtainedfor both a block code and a trellis code.

The operation of mapping section 3304 and symbol interleaver 3301 inFIG. 37 is similar to that described in Embodiment 5 and Embodiment 6,and therefore a detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

FIG. 40, in which parts corresponding to those in FIG. 30 and FIG. 35are assigned the same reference codes as in FIG. 30 and FIG. 35, showsan example of the configuration of a receiving apparatus of thisembodiment. FIG. 40 differs from FIG. 30 and FIG. 35 mainly in havingblock code decoding sections 4001_1 and 4001_2 inserted in the laststage of decoding since transmitting apparatus 3900 performs conjunctivecoding by means of block encoding and trellis encoding. Block codedecoding sections 4001_1 and 4001_2 have trellis decoded data 3012_1 to3012_4 as input, perform block code decoding, and output data 4002_1 and4002_2.

By means of the above configuration, receiving apparatus 4000 canreceive a modulated signal transmitted from transmitting apparatus 3900in FIG. 37 and obtain post-decoding data 3014. In particular, receivingapparatus 4000 is able to perform high-speed operation by having(trellis code) decoding sections 3011_1 to 3011_4, and block codedecoding sections 4001_1 and 4001_2, respectively, provided in parallel.Since receiving apparatus 4000 receives and decodes a signal equivalentto a bit-interleaved signal, it can obtain decoded data 3014 having agood error rate performance.

As described above, according to this embodiment, by applying themethods in Embodiment 1, Embodiment 5, and Embodiment 6, the sameeffects as in Embodiment 1, Embodiment 5, and Embodiment 6 can also beobtained when conjunctive coding is used.

In this embodiment, processing by mapping section 3304 to perform bitassignment to each symbol has been described taking FIG. 39 as anexample, but this embodiment is not limited to this, and the same effectcan also be obtained by combining the assignment examples described inEmbodiment 1, Embodiment 5, and Embodiment 6 as appropriate.

In this embodiment, a case has been described in which data istransmitted after being trellis encoded. Here, a trellis code accordingto this embodiment is assumed to include a convolutional code and aturbo code. In particular, when a turbo code is used an interleaver anddeinterleaver are necessary in encoding and decoding. In this case,interleaver 3301 in FIG. 37 and deinterleaver 3501 in FIG. 40 may beprovided separately from an interleaver and deinterleaver used for turbocode encoding and decoding. As another example, a different interleavermay be provided for each turbo encoder instead of providing symbolinterleaver 3301 as in FIG. 37. In this case, however, data encoded byeach turbo encoder requires different decoding to be performed, andtherefore decoding section sharing is difficult.

In this embodiment, configurations of a transmitting apparatus andreceiving apparatus that perform single-carrier communication have beendescribed as an example, but this embodiment is not limited to this, andcan be similarly implemented with a transmitting apparatus and receivingapparatus that perform OFDM or suchlike multicarrier communication.Furthermore, this embodiment can be similarly implemented with atransmitting apparatus and receiving apparatus that performmulti-antenna communication such as communication using MIMO scheme. Thetechnology described in this embodiment can be widely appliedirrespective of the multiplexing method. In particular, with amulticarrier method such as OFDM, a method of arranging symbols is toarrange them in the frequency domain—that is, in the (sub-) carrierdirection—as well as the time domain (see FIG. 10, FIG. 15, FIG. 26, andso forth, for example). The technology of this embodiment can be appliedto a case in which symbols are aligned on the time domain or a case inwhich symbols are aligned in the frequency domain, and enables the sameeffect as described above to be obtained in either case. Furthermore,the technology of this embodiment can also be applied, and enables thesame effect as described above to be obtained, when symbols are alignedon the space axis, as in the case of a transmission scheme using MIMOscheme.

Embodiment 8

In this embodiment, a method and configuration are described thatfurther improve reception quality when a data transmitting methoddescribed Embodiments 1 to 6 is applied to a MIMO system, and moreparticularly to MIMO system using spatial multiplexing such as shown inFIG. 9, FIG. 10, FIG. 11, and FIG. 12.

(1) Outline of a Typical MIMO System Using Spatial Multiplexing

Before describing the characteristics of this embodiment, an outlinewill be given of the configuration, transmitting method, and decodingmethod of a typical MIMO system using spatial multiplexing.

FIG. 41 shows the configuration of an N_(t)×N_(r) MIMO system usingspatial multiplexing. In FIG. 41, FIG. 41A shows the generalconfiguration of a transmitting apparatus, and FIG. 41B shows thegeneral configuration of a receiving apparatus that receives signalstransmitted from the transmitting apparatus in FIG. 41A.

The transmitting apparatus in FIG. 41A obtains encoded bit vector u′ byencoding information vector z by means of encoding section (outerencoder) 4101, and obtains post-interleaving encoded bit vector u=(u₁, .. . , u_(N) _(t) ) by performing interleave processing by means ofinterleaving section (II) 4102, where u_(i)=(u_(i1), . . . , u_(iM)) andM denotes the number of transmit bits per symbol.

When transmit vector s=(s₁, . . . , s_(N) _(t) ) and transmit signals_(i) transmitted from transmit antenna #1=map(u_(i)), transmissionenergy normalized value E{|s_(i)|²}=E_(s)/N_(t) (E_(s): total energy perchannel).

As shown in FIG. 41B, a receiving apparatus has detector (MIMO detector)4111, interleaver (Π⁻¹) 4112, decoder (outer soft-in/soft-out decoder)4113, and interleaver (II) 4114.

If a receive vector received by the receiving apparatus is designatedy=(y₁, . . . , y_(Nr))^(T), receive vector y is expressed as shown inthe following equation.

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 2} \right) & \; \\\begin{matrix}{y = \left( {y_{1},\ldots \mspace{14mu},y_{Nr}} \right)^{T}} \\{= {{H_{NtNr}s} + n}}\end{matrix} & \lbrack 2\rbrack\end{matrix}$

In Equation (2), H_(NtNr) is a channel matrix, n=(n₁, . . . ,n_(Nr))^(T) is a noise vector, and n_(i) is i.i.d. (independentidentically distributed) complex Gaussian noise of average value 0 andvariance σ².

Since a transmit symbol and receive symbol have a multidimensionalGaussian distribution relationship, probability p(y|u) for a receivevector can be expressed as shown in the following equation.

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 3} \right) & \; \\{{p\left( {yu} \right)} = {\frac{1}{\left( {2{\pi\sigma}^{2}} \right)^{N_{r}}}{\exp \left( {{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{y - {{Hs}(u)}}}^{2}} \right)}}} & \lbrack 3\rbrack\end{matrix}$

Here, a case is considered in which the receiving apparatus has MIMOdetector 4111 and outer soft-in/soft-out decoder 4113 as shown in FIG.41B, and performs iterative decoding. A logarithmic likelihood ratiovector (L-value) in FIG. 41B is expressed as shown in following Equation(4), Equation (5), and Equation (6) (see Non-patent Document 3,Non-patent Document 4, and Non-patent Document 5, for example).

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 4} \right) & \; \\{{L(u)} = \left( {{L\left( u_{1} \right)},\ldots \mspace{14mu},{L\left( u_{N_{t}} \right)}} \right)^{T}} & \lbrack 4\rbrack \\\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 5} \right) & \; \\{{L\left( u_{i} \right)} = \left( {{L\left( u_{i\; 1} \right)},\ldots \mspace{14mu},{L\left( u_{iM} \right)}} \right)} & \lbrack 5\rbrack \\\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 6} \right) & \; \\{{L\left( u_{ij} \right)} = {\ln \frac{P\left( {u_{ij} = {+ 1}} \right)}{P\left( {u_{ij} = {- 1}} \right)}}} & \lbrack 6\rbrack\end{matrix}$

(2) Outline of Iterative Detection

A description will be given here of MIMO signal iterative detection inan N_(t)×N_(r) MIMO system using spatial multiplexing.

An X_(mn), logarithmic likelihood ratio is defined as shown in thefollowing equation.

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 7} \right) & \; \\{{L\left( {u_{mn}y} \right)} = {\ln \frac{P\left( {u_{mn} = {{+ 1}y}} \right)}{P\left( {u_{mn} = {{- 1}y}} \right)}}} & \lbrack 7\rbrack\end{matrix}$

According to Bayes' theorem, Equation (7) can be expressed as shown inthe following equation.

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 8} \right) & \; \\\begin{matrix}{{L\left( {u_{mn}y} \right)} = {\ln \frac{p\left( {{yu_{mn}} = {+ 1}} \right){{P\left( {u_{mn} = {+ 1}} \right)}/{p(y)}}}{{p\left( {{yu_{mn}} = {- 1}} \right)}{{P\left( {u_{mn} = {- 1}} \right)}/{p(y)}}}}} \\{= {{\ln \frac{P\left( {u_{mn} = {+ 1}} \right)}{P\left( {u_{mn} = {- 1}} \right)}} + {\ln \frac{p\left( {{yu_{mn}} = {+ 1}} \right)}{p\left( {{yu_{mn}} = {- 1}} \right)}}}} \\{= {{\ln \frac{P\left( {u_{mn} = {+ 1}} \right)}{P\left( {u_{mn} = {- 1}} \right)}} + {\ln \frac{\sum\limits_{U_{{mn},{+ 1}}}{{p\left( {yu} \right)}{p\left( {uu_{mn}} \right)}}}{\sum\limits_{U_{{mn},{- 1}}}{{p\left( {yu} \right)}{p\left( {uu_{mn}} \right)}}}}}}\end{matrix} & \lbrack 8\rbrack\end{matrix}$

Here, it is assumed that U_(mn,±1)={u|u_(mn=±1)}. If Equation (8) isapproximated using the following equation, as described in Non-patentDocument 6, Non-patent Document 7, and Non-patent Document 8, forexample)

lnΣa _(j)≈max ln a _(j)  (Equation 9)

approximation can be performed as shown in the following equation.

$\begin{matrix}{\mspace{79mu} \left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 10} \right)} & \; \\{{L\left( {u_{mn}y} \right)} \approx {{\ln \frac{P\left( {u_{mn} = {+ 1}} \right)}{P\left( {u_{mn} = {- 1}} \right)}} + {\max\limits_{{Umn},{+ 1}}\left\{ {{\ln \; {p\left( {yu} \right)}} + {P\left( {uu_{mn}} \right)}} \right\}} - {\max\limits_{{Umn},{- 1}}\left\{ {{\ln \; {p\left( {yu} \right)}} + {P\left( {uu_{mn}} \right)}} \right\}}}} & \lbrack 10\rbrack\end{matrix}$

P(u|u) and ln P(u|u_(mn)) in Equation (10) are expressed as shown in thefollowing equations.

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 11} \right) & \; \\\begin{matrix}{{P\left( {uu_{mn}} \right)} = {\prod\limits_{{({ij})} \neq {({mn})}}{P\left( u_{ij} \right)}}} \\{= {\prod\limits_{{({ij})} \neq {({mn})}}\frac{\exp \left( \frac{u_{ij}{L\left( u_{ij} \right)}}{2} \right)}{{\exp \left( \frac{L\left( u_{ij} \right)}{2} \right)} + {\exp \left( {- \frac{L\left( u_{ij} \right)}{2}} \right)}}}}\end{matrix} & \lbrack 11\rbrack \\\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 12} \right) & \; \\{{{\ln \; {P\left( {uu_{mn}} \right)}} = {\left( {\sum\limits_{ij}{\ln \; {P\left( u_{ij} \right)}}} \right) - {\ln \; {P\left( u_{mn} \right)}}}}{where}{{\ln \; {P\left( u_{ij} \right)}} = {\frac{L\left( u_{ij} \right)}{2}}}\left( {u_{ij}{{sign}\left( {L\left( u_{ij} \right)} \right)}} \right)} & \lbrack 12\rbrack\end{matrix}$

The logarithmic probability of the equation defined by Equation (3) isexpressed as shown in the following equation.

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 13} \right) & \; \\{{\ln \; {P\left( {yu} \right)}} = {{{- \frac{N_{r}}{2}}{\ln \left( {2{\pi\sigma}^{2}} \right)}} - {\frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}{{y - {{Hs}(u)}}}^{2}}}} & \lbrack 13\rbrack\end{matrix}$

Therefore, from Equation (10) and Equation (13), with MAP (Maximum Aposteriori Probability) or APP (A Posteriori Probability), an aposteriori L-value is expressed as shown in the following equation (seeNon-patent Document 3).

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 14} \right) & \; \\{{L\left( {u_{mn}y} \right)} = {\ln \frac{\sum\limits_{U_{{mn},{+ 1}}}{\exp \left\{ {{{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{y - {{Hs}(u)}}}^{2}} + {\sum\limits_{ij}{\ln \; {P\left( u_{ij} \right)}}}} \right\}}}{\sum\limits_{U_{{mn},{- 1}}}{\exp \left\{ {{{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{y - {{Hs}(u)}}}^{2}} + {\sum\limits_{ij}{\ln \; {P\left( u_{ij} \right)}}}} \right\}}}}} & \lbrack 14\rbrack\end{matrix}$

Hereinafter, iterative detection using Equation (14) is referred to asiterative APP detection.

From Equation (10) and Equation (13), with MAP (Maximum A posterioriProbability) or APP (A Posteriori Probability), an a posteriori L-valuein a logarithmic likelihood ratio (Max-Log APP) utilizing Max-Logapproximation is expressed as shown in the following equations (seeNon-patent Document 6 and Non-patent Document 7).

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 15} \right) & \; \\{{L\left( {u_{mn}y} \right)} \approx {{\max\limits_{{Umn},{+ 1}}\left\{ {\Psi \left( {u,y,{L(u)}} \right)} \right\}} - {\max\limits_{{Umn},{- 1}}\left\{ {\Psi \left( {u,y,{L(u)}} \right)} \right\}}}} & \lbrack 15\rbrack \\\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 16} \right) & \; \\{{\Psi \left( {u,y,{L(u)}} \right)} = {{{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{y - {{Hs}(u)}}}^{2}} + {\sum\limits_{ij}{\ln \; {P\left( u_{ij} \right)}}}}} & \lbrack 16\rbrack\end{matrix}$

Hereinafter, iterative detection using Equation (15) and Equation (16)is referred to as iterative Max-log APP detection. External informationnecessary for iterative detection can be found by subtracting inputbeforehand from Equation (14) and Equation (15).

(3) System Model and Iterative Decoding of this Embodiment (3-1) SystemModel

FIG. 42 shows a system model of this embodiment. To simplify thedescription, FIG. 42 shows the simplest 2×2 MIMO system using spatialmultiplexing. In FIG. 42, FIG. 42A shows the general configuration of atransmitting apparatus, and FIG. 42B shows the general configuration ofa receiving apparatus that receives signals transmitted from thetransmitting apparatus in FIG. 42A.

The transmitting apparatus in FIG. 42 encodes stream A by means ofencoding section (outer encoder) 4201_1 and encodes stream B by means ofencoding section (outer encoder) 4201_2. In the case of this embodiment,encoding section (outer encoder) 4201_1 and encoding section (outerencoder) 4201_2 are configured by means of LDPC encoders that performencoding of the same LDPC code alternately.

Stream A encoded by encoding section 4201_1 is interleaved byinterleaver (π_(a)) 4202_1, and stream B encoded by encoding section4201_2 is interleaved by interleaver (π_(b)) 4202_2.

Stream A and stream B that have undergone interleave processing arerespectively modulated by modulation sections (Modulators) 4203_1 and4203_2 and then transmitted from transmit antennas T#1 and T#2. Here,the modulation method of modulation sections 4203_1 and 4203_2 isassumed to be 2^(h)-QAM (in which one symbol is formed by h bits).

The receiving apparatus in FIG. 42B performs iterative detection(iterative APP (or Max-log APP) decoding) of an above MIMO signal. Inthe case of this embodiment, since the transmitting apparatus performsLDPC encoding, the receiver performs sum-product decoding as LDPC codedecoding.

FIG. 43 shows transmit frame configurations, and more particularly showsthe order of symbols after interleaving. In FIG. 43, i_(a) and i_(b)indicate the post-interleaving symbol orders for stream A and stream B,j_(a) and j_(b) indicate bit positions according to the modulationmethod (j_(a),j_(b)=1, . . . , h), π_(a) and π_(b) indicate stream A andstream B interleavers, and Ω^(b)i_(a),j_(a) and Ω^(b)i_(b),j_(b)indicate the pre-interleaving data orders of stream A and stream B. FIG.43 shows frame configurations when i_(a)=i_(b). Here, (i_(a),j_(a)) and(i_(b),j_(b)) are described as shown in the following equations.

(i _(a) ,j _(a))=π_(a)(Ω_(ia,ja) ^(a))  (Equation 17)

(i _(b) ,j _(b))=π_(b)(Ω_(ib,jb) ^(a))  (Equation 18)

(3-2) Iterative Decoding

Here, sum-product decoding and MIMO signal iterative detectionalgorithms used when the receiving apparatus performs LDPC code decodingwill be described in detail.

(3-2-1) Sum-Product Decoding

Here, two-dimensional (M×N) matrix H={H_(mn)} will be taken as an LDPCcode check matrix subject to decoding. Subset A(m), B(n) of set[1,N]={1, 2, . . . , N} is defined as shown in the following equations.

A(m)≡{n:H _(mn)=1}  (Equation 19)

B(n)≡{m:H _(mn)=1}  (Equation 20)

A(m) means a set of column index 1 in the m'th row of check matrix H,and B(n) means a set of row index 1 in the n'th row of check matrix H.The sum-product decoding algorithm is as follows.

-   -   Step A•1 (initialization): A priori value logarithmic ratio        β_(mn)=0 is assumed for all pairs (m,n) satisfying H_(mn)=1.        Loop variable (number of iterations) 1_(sum)=1 is assumed, and        the maximum number of loops is set as 1_(sum,max).    -   Step A•2 (line processing): External value logarithmic ratio        α_(mn) is updated using following update equations Equation (21)        to Equation (23) for all pairs (m,n) satisfying H_(mn)=1 in the        order m=1, 2, . . . , M.

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 21} \right) & \; \\{\alpha_{mn} = {\left( {\prod\limits_{n^{\prime} \in {{A{(m)}}{\backslash n}}}{{sign}\left( \beta_{{mn}^{\prime}} \right)}} \right) \times {f\left( {\sum\limits_{n^{\prime} \in {{A{(m)}}{\backslash n}}}{f\left( {\beta_{{mn}^{\prime}}} \right)}} \right)}}} & \lbrack 21\rbrack \\\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 22} \right) & \; \\{{{sign}(x)} \equiv \left\{ \begin{matrix}1 & {x \geq 0} \\{- 1} & {x < 0}\end{matrix} \right.} & \lbrack 22\rbrack \\\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 23} \right) & \; \\{{f(x)} \equiv {\ln \frac{{\exp (x)} + 1}{{\exp (x)} - 1}}} & \lbrack 23\rbrack\end{matrix}$

In the above equations, f is a Gallager function. The method of findingλ_(n) will be described later herein.

-   -   Step A•3 (column processing): External value logarithmic ratio        β_(mn) is updated using the following update equation for all        pairs (m,n) satisfying H_(mn)=1 in the order n=1, 2, . . . , N.

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 24} \right) & \; \\{\beta_{mn} = {\lambda_{n} + {\sum\limits_{m^{\prime} \in {{B{(n)}}\backslash m}}\alpha_{m^{\prime}n}}}} & \lbrack 24\rbrack\end{matrix}$

-   -   Step A•4 (logarithmic likelihood ratio calculation): Logarithmic        likelihood ratio Ln is found for nε[1,N] as shown in the        following equation.

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 25} \right) & \; \\{L_{n} = {\lambda_{n} + {\sum\limits_{m^{\prime} \in {B{(n)}}}\alpha_{m^{\prime}n}}}} & \lbrack 25\rbrack\end{matrix}$

-   -   Step A•5 (count of number of iterations): If        1_(sum)<1_(sum,max), 1_(sum) is incremented, and Step A•2 is        returned to. If 1_(sum)=1_(sum,max), 1_(sum), the present        sum-product decoding is terminated.

The above is one sum-product decoding operation. Thereafter, MIMO signaliterative detection is performed. Variables m, n, α_(mn), β_(mn), λ_(n),and L_(n) used in the above description of a sum-product decodingoperation are represented by variables m_(a), n_(a), α^(a) _(mana),β^(a) _(mana), λ_(na), and L_(na) in the case of stream A, and byvariables m_(b), n_(b), α^(b) _(mbnb), β^(b) _(mbnb), λ_(nb), and L_(nb)in the case of stream B.

(3-2-2) MIMO Signal Iterative Detection

Here, the method of finding λ_(n) in MIMO signal iterative detectionwill be described in detail. From Equation (2), the following equationholds true.

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 26} \right) & \; \\\begin{matrix}{{y(t)} = \left( {{y_{1}(t)},{y_{2}(t)}} \right)^{T}} \\{= {{{H_{22}(t)}{s(t)}} + {n(t)}}}\end{matrix} & \lbrack 26\rbrack\end{matrix}$

From the frame configuration in FIG. 43 and Equation (18) and Equation(19), the following equations are defined.

n _(a)=Ω_(ia,ja) ^(a)  (Equation 27)

n _(b)=Ω_(ib,jb) ^(b)  (Equation 28)

At this time, n_(a),n_(b)ε[1,N]. Hereinafter, λ_(na), L_(na), λ_(nb),and L_(nb) in the case of MIMO signal iterative detection number ofiterations k are expressed as λ_(k,na), L_(k,na), λ_(k,nb), andL_(k,nb), respectively.

-   -   Step B•1 (initial detection; k=0): In initial detection,        λ_(0,na) and λ_(0,nb) are found as shown in the following        equation.

In the case of iterative APP decoding:

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 29} \right) & \; \\{\lambda_{0,n_{X}} = {\ln \frac{\sum\limits_{U_{0,n_{X},{+ 1}}}{\exp \left\{ {{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{{y\left( i_{X} \right)} - {{H_{22}\left( i_{X} \right)}{s\left( {u\left( i_{X} \right)} \right)}}}}^{2}} \right\}}}{\sum\limits_{U_{0,n_{X},{- 1}}}{\exp \left\{ {{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{{y\left( i_{X} \right)} - {{H_{22}\left( i_{X} \right)}{s\left( {u\left( i_{X} \right)} \right)}}}}^{2}} \right\}}}}} & \lbrack 29\rbrack\end{matrix}$

In the case of iterative Max-log APP decoding:

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 30} \right) & \; \\{\lambda_{0,n_{X}} = {{\max\limits_{U_{0,n_{X},{+ 1}}}\left\{ {\Psi \left( {{u\left( i_{X} \right)},{y\left( i_{X} \right)}} \right)} \right\}} = {\max\limits_{U_{0,n_{X},{- 1}}}\left\{ {\Psi \left( {{u\left( i_{X} \right)},{y\left( i_{X} \right)}} \right)} \right\}}}} & \lbrack 30\rbrack \\\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 31} \right) & \; \\{{\Psi \left( {{u\left( i_{X} \right)},{y\left( i_{X} \right)}} \right)} = {{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{{y\left( i_{X} \right)} - {{H_{22}\left( i_{X} \right)}{s\left( {u\left( i_{X} \right)} \right)}}}}^{2}}} & \lbrack 31\rbrack\end{matrix}$

where X=a,b. Then the MIMO signal iterative detection number ofiterations is assumed to be 1_(mimo)=0, and the maximum number ofiterations is set as 1_(mimo,max).

-   -   Step B•2 (iterative detection; number of iterations k): In the        case of number of iterations k, from Equation (14) to Equation        (16), Equation (27), and Equation (28), λ_(k,na) and λ_(k,nb)        are expressed as shown in following Equation (32) to Equation        (35), where (X,Y)=(a,b) (b,a).

In the case of iterative APP decoding:

$\begin{matrix}{\mspace{79mu} \left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 32} \right)} & \; \\{\lambda_{k,n_{X}} = {{- {L_{{k - 1},\Omega_{{iX},{jX}}^{X}}\left( u_{\Omega_{{iX},{jX}}^{X}} \right)}} + {\ln \frac{\sum\limits_{U_{k,n_{X},{+ 1}}}{\exp \begin{Bmatrix}{{{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{{y\left( i_{X} \right)} - {{H_{22}\left( i_{X} \right)}{s\left( {u\left( i_{X} \right)} \right)}}}}^{2}} +} \\{\rho \left( u_{\Omega_{{iX},{jX}}^{X}} \right)}\end{Bmatrix}}}{\sum\limits_{U_{k,n_{X},{- 1}}}{\exp \begin{Bmatrix}{{{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{{y\left( i_{X} \right)} - {{H_{22}\left( i_{X} \right)}{s\left( {u\left( i_{X} \right)} \right)}}}}^{2}} +} \\{\rho \left( u_{\Omega_{{iX},{jX}}^{X}} \right)}\end{Bmatrix}}}}}} & \lbrack 32\rbrack \\{\mspace{79mu} \left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 33} \right)} & \; \\{{\rho \left( u_{\Omega_{{iX},{jX}}^{X}} \right)} = {{\sum\limits_{\gamma = 1}^{h}{{\frac{L_{{k - 1},\Omega_{{iX},\gamma}^{X}}\left( u_{\Omega_{{iX},\gamma}^{X}} \right)}{2}}\left( {u_{\Omega_{{iX},\gamma}^{X}}{{sign}\left( {L_{{k - 1},\Omega_{{iX},\gamma}^{X}}\left( u_{\Omega_{{iX},\gamma}^{X}} \right)} \right)}} \right)}} + {\sum\limits_{\gamma = 1}^{h}{{\frac{L_{{k - 1},\Omega_{{iX},\gamma}^{Y}}\left( u_{\Omega_{{iX},\gamma}^{\gamma}} \right)}{2}}\left( {u_{\Omega_{{iX},\gamma}^{Y}}{{sign}\left( {L_{{k - 1},\Omega_{{iX},\gamma}^{\gamma}}\left( u_{\Omega_{{iX},\gamma}^{Y}} \right)} \right)}} \right)}}}} & \lbrack 33\rbrack\end{matrix}$

In the case of iterative Max-log APP decoding:

$\begin{matrix}{\mspace{79mu} \left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 34} \right)} & \; \\{\lambda_{k,n_{x}} = {{- {L_{{k - 1},\Omega_{{iX},{jX}}^{X}}\left( u_{\Omega_{{iX},{jX}}^{X}} \right)}} + {\max\limits_{U_{k,n_{X},{+ 1}}}\left\{ {\Psi \left( {{u\left( i_{X} \right)},{y\left( i_{X} \right)},{\rho \left( u_{\Omega_{{iX},{jX}}^{X}} \right)}} \right)} \right\}} - {\max\limits_{U_{k,n_{X},{- 1}}}\left\{ {\Psi \left( {{u\left( i_{X} \right)},{y\left( i_{X} \right)},{\rho \left( u_{\Omega_{{iX},{jX}}^{X}} \right)}} \right)} \right\}}}} & \lbrack 34\rbrack \\{\mspace{79mu} \left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 35} \right)} & \; \\{{\Psi \left( {{u\left( i_{X} \right)},{y\left( i_{X} \right)},{\rho \left( u_{\Omega_{{iX},{jX}}^{X}} \right)}} \right)} = {{{- \frac{1}{2\sigma^{2}}}{{{y\left( i_{X} \right)} - {{H_{22}\left( i_{X} \right)}{s\left( {u\left( i_{X} \right)} \right)}}}}^{2}} + {\rho \left( u_{\Omega_{{iX},{jX}}^{X}} \right)}}} & \lbrack 35\rbrack\end{matrix}$

-   -   Step B•3 (count of number of iterations, codeword estimation):        If 1_(mimo)<1_(mimo,max), 1_(mimo) is incremented, and Step B•2        is returned to. If 1_(mimo)=1_(mimo,max), 1_(sum), an estimated        codeword is found as shown in the following equation, where        X=a,b.

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 36} \right) & \; \\{{\hat{u}}_{n_{X}} = \left\{ \begin{matrix}1 & {L_{l_{mimo},n_{X}} \geq 0} \\{- 1} & {L_{l_{mimo},n_{X}} < 0}\end{matrix} \right.} & \lbrack 36\rbrack\end{matrix}$

(4) Consideration Using Factor Graphs

Here, factor graphs will be described for a case in which the interleavepatterns of stream A and stream B are the same (SIP: Same InterleavePattern), and a case in which the interleave patterns of stream A andstream B are different (VIP: Varying Interleave Pattern), and the effectof using VIP, as in this embodiment, will be considered.

(4-1) When the Interleave Patterns are the Same (SIP)

FIG. 44 shows a factor graph for a case in which, as an example, themodulation method is 16QAM and the interleave patterns of stream A andstream B are the same in the above system model. At this time, when therelational expression of the following equation holds true,

n _(a)(=Ω_(ia,ja) ^(a))=n _(b)(=Ω_(ib,jb) ^(b))  (Equation 37)

the relational expression of the following equation holds true.

(i _(a) ,j _(a))=(i _(b) ,j _(b))=(i _(s) ,j _(s))  (Equation 38)

Since LDPC code is the same for stream A and stream B, nodes and edgesare symmetrical about the axis of symmetry as shown in FIG. 44. When SIPis performed, Equation (38) holds true for (i_(a),j_(a)) correspondingto a stream A Variable node and (i_(b),j_(b)) corresponding to a streamB Variable node in a symmetrical relationship to the axis of symmetry.

As can be seen from FIG. 44 and Equation (32) to Equation (35), in thecase of number of iterations k, L_(k-1),Ω_(ia,γ) ^(a) (γ≠j_(a),γ=1, . .. , h) from stream A and L_(k-1),Ω_(ib,γ) ^(b) (γ=1, . . . , h) fromstream B propagated to a variable node corresponding to n_(a) of streamA are symbols of the same time (that is, i_(a)=i_(b)=i_(s)), andtherefore the influence of channel matrix H₂₂(i_(s)) is large.

That is to say, since only limited time influence is received, there isa high possibility of stream A space-time diversity gain being small.The same also applies to stream B. However, in L_(k-1),Ω_(ia,γ) ^(a),L_(k-1),Ω_(ib,γ) ^(b), influence of a node of a position at which thereis 1 in check matrix H is also received through calculation of α_(mn)and β_(mn) by means of sum-product decoding, and a stream A node andstream B node that provide that influence are symbols of the same timeand at the same bit position in the modulation method (incidentally, aplurality of these nodes exist since there are a plurality of 1 s incheck matrix H). Therefore, in sum-product decoding also, there is ahigh possibility of space-time diversity gain being small for bothstream A and stream B since only limited time influence is received.

(4-2) When the Interleave Patterns are Different (VIP)

FIG. 45 shows a factor graph for a case in which, as an example, themodulation method is 16QAM (that is, h=4) and the interleave patterns ofstream A and stream B are different in the above model. Nodes and edgesin FIG. 45 are symmetrical about the axis of symmetry for part ofsum-product decoding. However, edges relating to MIMO signal iterativedetection are not symmetrical about the axis of symmetry. Thus, in thecase of VIP, reliability propagation is performed for more times (orfrequencies) than in the case of SIP. Therefore, there is a higherpossibility of time (or frequency depending on the case) and spacediversity gain improving.

As shown in FIG. 45, in the case of number of iterations k,L_(k-1),Ω_(ia,γ) ^(a) (γ≠j_(a), γ=1, . . . , h) from stream A andL_(k-1),Ω_(ib,γ) ^(b) (γ=1, . . . , h) from stream B propagated to avariable node corresponding to n_(a) of stream A are expressed asL_(k-1),Ω_(ia,γ) ^(a), L_(k-1),Ω_(ia,γ) ^(b). In the case of number ofiterations k, L_(k-1),Ω_(ia,γ) ^(a) (γ≠j_(a),γ=1, . . . , h) from streamA and L_(k-1),Ω_(ib,γ) ^(b) (γ=, . . . , h) from stream B propagated toa variable node corresponding to n_(a) of stream A are symbols of thesame time (that is, i_(a)=i_(b)=i_(s)), and the influence of channelmatrix H₂₂(i_(s)) is large.

That is to say, since only limited time influence is received, there isa high possibility of stream A space-time diversity gain being small.The same also applies to stream B. This point is the same as when SIP isperformed.

However, in L_(k-1),Ω_(ia,γ) ^(a), L_(k-1),Ω_(ia,γ) ^(b), influence of anode of a position at which there is 1 in check matrix H is alsoreceived through calculation of α_(mn) and β_(mn) by means ofsum-product decoding. The majority of stream A nodes and stream B nodesthat provide that influence have lost symmetry, and are thereforesymbols of different times and at different bit positions in themodulation method. Therefore, in sum-product decoding, there is a highpossibility of influence of many times also being received when SIP isused. Consequently, space-time diversity gain can be increased forstream A. The same also applies to stream B.

As described above, by providing for the interleave patterns of stream Aand stream B to be different, reception quality when LDPC encoding isperformed can be improved. In the above example, a case has beendescribed in which LDPC encoding is performed, but this embodiment isnot limited to this, and, essentially, when the above iterative decodingis performed, as long as interleave processing is executed with adifferent interleave pattern for each stream, reception quality can beimproved in the same way as in the above example irrespective of thenumber of antennas (the number of transmitted modulated signals) or themodulation method.

Also, in the above example, a case has been described in whichinterleave processing is performed with different interleave patternsfor each stream, but this embodiment is not limited to this, and thesame effect can also be obtained by application to a communicationmethod whereby a signal of a plurality of streams is transmitted from asingle antenna as shown in FIG. 46, in which parts corresponding tothose in FIG. 42A are assigned the same reference codes as in FIG. 42A.

(5) Interleaving Method and Configuration of this Embodiment

A detailed description is given below of the interleaving method andconfiguration of this embodiment using the data arrangement methoddescribed in Embodiments 1 to 7 and utilizing the above characteristicsin MIMO system using spatial multiplexing.

(5-1) Implementation Example 1

FIG. 47 shows an example of the configuration of a multi-antennatransmitting apparatus of Implementation Example 1. The generalconfiguration of multi-antenna transmitting apparatus 4600 is almost thesame as that of multi-antenna transmitting apparatus 100 in FIG. 9described in Embodiment 2, and therefore parts corresponding to those inFIG. 9 are assigned the same reference codes as in FIG. 9, and adetailed description thereof is omitted here. The following descriptioncenters on interleave processing (corresponding to processing thatassigns bits to symbols) by arranging sections 104A and 104B that is acharacteristic of this embodiment.

In this example, a case will be described by way of example in whichLDPC encoding as illustrated in FIG. 3 is performed by encoding sections102A and 102B.

FIG. 48 and FIG. 49 show to which post-modulation symbols bits in eachLDPC encoded block are assigned. Specifically, FIG. 48 and FIG. 49 showthe symbols in which encoded data in one block (data after LDPCencoding) configured by means of 980 bits are placed. The horizontalaxis indicates the symbol time sequence, and the vertical axis indicatesthe bit numbers configuring one symbol—that is, b1 in the case of BPSK;b1 and b2 in the case of QPSK; b1, b2, b3, and b4 in the case of 16QAM;and b1, b2, b3, b4, b5, and b6 in the case of 64QAM.

FIG. 48 shows examples of interleave processing (that is, processingthat assigns bits to symbols) for modulated signal (stream) Atransmitted from antenna 114A in FIG. 47.

FIG. 48 (a) shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulationmethod is BPSK. When the modulation method is BPSK, one bit (A_b1) istransmitted in one symbol, and therefore only one 980-bit encoded blockis transmitted by means of 980 symbols.

FIG. 48 (b) shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulationmethod is QPSK. When the modulation method is QPSK, two bits (A_b1,A_b2) are transmitted in one symbol, and therefore two 980-bitpost-encoding blocks can be transmitted by means of 980 symbols. As isclear from the drawing, each symbol here is configured by collectingtogether intra-block encoded data of different encoded blocks.Specifically, bits #1-1 to #1-980 of post-encoding block #1 are assignedto bit A_b1 of the 980 QPSK symbols, and bits #2-1 to #2-980 ofpost-encoding block #2 are assigned to bit A_b2 of the 980 symbols. Bythis means, bits (data) in each encoded block can be dispersedtemporally across a number of symbols equal to that of BPSK, enabling anoverall drop in the quality of data within an encoded block because of anotch due to fading to be avoided. Thus, since the probability of mostdata within an encoded block being erroneous in a burst fashion is low,the error rate performance can be improved.

FIG. 48 (c) shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulationmethod is 16QAM. When the modulation method is 16QAM, four bits (A_b1,A_b2, A_b3, A_b4) are transmitted in one symbol, and therefore four980-bit post-encoding blocks can be transmitted by means of 980 symbols.A characteristic of bit assignment to each symbol here is that, as withQPSK, encoded data in one block are assigned to a plurality of symbols.Specifically, data #1-1 to #1-980 of post-encoding block #1 are assignedto bit A_b1 of the 980 16QAM symbols, data #2-1 to #2-980 ofpost-encoding block #2 are assigned to bit A_b2 of the 980 symbols, data#3-1 to #3-980 of post-encoding block #3 are assigned to bit A_b3 of the980 symbols, and data #4-1 to #4-980 of post-encoding block #4 areassigned to bit A_b4 of the 980 symbols. By this means, bits (data) ineach encoded block can be dispersed temporally across a number ofsymbols equal to that of BPSK, enabling an overall drop in the qualityof data within an encoded block because of a notch due to fading to beavoided. Thus, since the probability of most data within an encodedblock being erroneous in a burst fashion is low, the error rateperformance can be improved.

FIG. 48 (d) shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulationmethod is 64QAM. When the modulation method is 64QAM, six bits (A_b1,A_b2, A_b3, A_b4, A_b5, A_b6) are transmitted in one symbol, andtherefore six 980-bit post-encoding blocks can be transmitted by meansof 980 symbols. A characteristic of bit assignment to each symbol hereis that, as with QPSK and 16QAM, encoded data in one block are assignedto a plurality of symbols. Specifically, data #1-1 to #1-980 ofpost-encoding block #1 are assigned to bit A_b1 of the 980 64QAMsymbols, data #2-1 to #2-980 of post-encoding block #2 are assigned tobit A_b2 of the 980 symbols, data #3-1 to #3-980 of post-encoding block#3 are assigned to bit A_b3 of the 980 symbols, data #4-1 to #4-980 ofpost-encoding block #4 are assigned to bit A_b4 of the 980 symbols, data#5-1 to #5-980 of post-encoding block #5 are assigned to bit A_b5 of the980 symbols, and data #6-1 to #6-980 of post-encoding block #6 areassigned to bit A_b6 of the 980 symbols.

By this means, bits (data) in each encoded block can be dispersedtemporally across a number of symbols equal to that of BPSK, enabling anoverall drop in the quality of data within an encoded block because of anotch due to fading to be avoided. Thus, since the probability of mostdata within an encoded block being erroneous in a burst fashion is low,the error rate performance can be improved.

FIG. 49 shows examples of interleave processing (that is, processingthat assigns bits to symbols) for modulated signal (stream) Btransmitted from antenna 114B in FIG. 47.

FIG. 49 (a) shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulationmethod is BPSK. When the modulation method is BPSK, one bit (B_b1) istransmitted in one symbol, and therefore only one 980-bit encoded blockis transmitted by means of 980 symbols.

FIG. 49 (b) shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulationmethod is QPSK. When the modulation method is QPSK, two bits (B_b1,B_b2) are transmitted in one symbol, and therefore two 980-bitpost-encoding blocks can be transmitted by means of 980 symbols. As isclear from the drawing, each symbol here is configured by collectingtogether intra-block encoded data of different encoded blocks.Specifically, bits #1-1 to #1-980 of post-encoding block #1 are assignedto bit B_b1 of the 980 QPSK symbols, and bits #2-1 to #2-980 ofpost-encoding block #2 are assigned to bit B_b2 of the 980 symbols. Bythis means, bits (data) in each encoded block can be dispersedtemporally across a number of symbols equal to that of BPSK, enabling anoverall drop in the quality of data within an encoded block because of anotch due to fading to be avoided. Thus, since the probability of mostdata within an encoded block being erroneous in a burst fashion is low,the error rate performance can be improved.

FIG. 49 (c) shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulationmethod is 16QAM. When the modulation method is 16QAM, four bits (B_b1,B_b2, B_b3, B_b4) are transmitted in one symbol, and therefore four980-bit post-encoding blocks can be transmitted by means of 980 symbols.A characteristic of bit assignment to each symbol here is that, as withQPSK, encoded data in one block are assigned to a plurality of symbols.Specifically, data #1-1 to #1-980 of post-encoding block #1 are assignedto bit B_b1 of the 980 16QAM symbols, data #2-1 to #2-980 ofpost-encoding block #2 are assigned to bit B_b2 of the 980 symbols, data#3-1 to #3-980 of post-encoding block #3 are assigned to bit B_b3 of the980 symbols, and data #4-1 to #4-980 of post-encoding block #4 areassigned to bit B_b4 of the 980 symbols. By this means, bits (data) ineach encoded block can be dispersed temporally across a number ofsymbols equal to that of BPSK, enabling an overall drop in the qualityof data within an encoded block because of a notch due to fading to beavoided. Thus, since the probability of most data within an encodedblock being erroneous in a burst fashion is low, the error rateperformance can be improved.

FIG. 49 (d) shows bit assignment to each symbol when the modulationmethod is 64QAM. When the modulation method is 64QAM, six bits (B_b1,B_b2, B_b3, B_b4, B_b5, B_b6) are transmitted in one symbol, andtherefore six 980-bit post-encoding blocks can be transmitted by meansof 980 symbols. A characteristic of bit assignment to each symbol hereis that, as with QPSK and 16QAM, encoded data in one block are assignedto a plurality of symbols. Specifically, data #1-1 to #1-980 ofpost-encoding block #1 are assigned to bit B_b1 of the 980 64QAMsymbols, data #2-1 to #2-980 of post-encoding block #2 are assigned tobit B_b2 of the 980 symbols, data #3-1 to #3-980 of post-encoding block#3 are assigned to bit B_b3 of the 980 symbols, data #4-1 to #4-980 ofpost-encoding block #4 are assigned to bit B_b4 of the 980 symbols, data#5-1 to #5-980 of post-encoding block #5 are assigned to bit B_b5 of the980 symbols, and data #6-1 to #6-980 of post-encoding block #6 areassigned to bit B_b6 of the 980 symbols.

By this means, bits (data) in each encoded block can be dispersedtemporally across a number of symbols equal to that of BPSK, enabling anoverall drop in the quality of data within an encoded block because of anotch due to fading to be avoided. Thus, since the probability of mostdata within an encoded block being erroneous in a burst fashion is low,the error rate performance can be improved.

In addition to the above, in this implementation example provision ismade for the pattern of bit assignment to symbols to be varied betweenmodulated signal A and modulated signal B by varying the bit shiftamount in modulated signal. A and modulated signal B as shown in FIG. 48and FIG. 49. Specifically, arranging sections 104A and 104B can beconfigured using different bit shifters. This enables the pattern of bitassignment to symbols to be varied between modulated signal A andmodulated signal B by means of a simple circuit configuration. Thispoint is explained in detail below.

First, as one condition, it is assumed that the same encoding method isused in FIG. 48 and FIG. 49. This makes commonality of encoding sections102A and 102B possible, enabling the circuitry to be simplifiedaccordingly.

Here, the simplest method of varying the pattern of bit assignment tosymbols (interleave pattern) between modulated signal (stream) A andmodulated signal (stream) B may be considered to be the use of differentinterleavers for stream A and stream B. However, this method increasesthe computation scale.

Thus, in this implementation example, the pattern of bit assignment tosymbols (interleave pattern) is varied between modulated signal (stream)A and modulated signal (stream) B by means of bit shifting alone.

As shown in FIG. 48 (a) and FIG. 49 (a), when a BPSK modulated signal istransmitted as modulated signal A and modulated signal B, modulatedsignal B is formed by performing a 2-bit shift on modulated signal A.

Also, as shown in FIG. 48 (b) and FIG. 49 (b), when a QPSK modulatedsignal is transmitted as modulated signal A and modulated signal B, theorder of transmission of A_b1 is shifted by 2 bits in A_b2, by 4 bits inB_b1, and by 6 bits in B_b2. By this means, the interleave patterns ofmodulated signal A and modulated signal B can be made different, and theinterleave patterns of A_b1, A_b2, B_b1, and B_b2 can also be madedifferent. In particular, making the interleave patterns of A_b1, A_b2,B_b1, and B_b2 different enables reception quality to be improved asdescribed above using the factor graphs in FIG. 44 and FIG. 45.

Similarly, as shown in FIG. 48 (c) and FIG. 49 (c), and in FIG. 48 (d)and FIG. 49 (d), when a 16QAM or 64QAM modulated signal is transmittedas modulated signal A and modulated signal. B, by executing a bit shiftof a different shift amount for each bit in an encoded block transmittedby the respective bits (A_b1, A_b2, . . . , B_b1, B_b2, . . . ), theorder in which data is transmitted is made different for each bit ofeach modulated signal (A_b1, A_b2, . . . , B_b1, B_b2, . . . ).

By making the order in which data is transmitted different for each bitof modulated signal A and modulated signal B by executing bit shifts ofdifferent shift amounts for each bit of each modulated signal in thisway, reception quality in a receiver when iterative APP or iterativeMax-log APP is performed can be improved.

(5-2) Implementation Example 2

FIG. 50 and FIG. 51 show examples of different interleave processingfrom that in FIG. 48 and FIG. 49. FIG. 50 shows examples of interleaveprocessing (that is, processing that assigns bits to symbols) formodulated signal (stream) A transmitted from antenna 114A in FIG. 47,and FIG. 51 shows examples of interleave processing (that is, processingthat assigns bits to symbols) for modulated signal (stream) Btransmitted from antenna 114B in FIG. 47.

The relationship between FIG. 48 and FIG. 50 and the relationshipbetween FIG. 49 and FIG. 51 are the same as the relationship betweenFIG. 5 and FIG. 6.

FIG. 50 and FIG. 51 are similar to FIG. 48 and FIG. 49 in that encodeddata in one block are assigned to a plurality of symbols, and the sameeffect can be obtained in these cases as when arrangement is performedas shown in FIG. 48 and FIG. 49. FIG. 50 and FIG. 51 differ from FIG. 48and FIG. 49 in that, with QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM, one post-encodingblock is not assigned to a fixed bit (for example, A_b1 only), but isassigned to all bits (for example, in the case of 16QAM, A_b1, A_b2,A_b3, A_b4).

The reason for using such an assignment method will now be explained.There are differences in 16QAM A_b1 reception quality, A_b2 receptionquality, A_b3 reception quality, and A_b4 reception quality. it will beassumed here that A_b1 reception quality is the poorest. In this case,if block #1 is transmitted using only A_b1, block #1 will be a blockwith poor reception quality. When communication based on packet isperformed, packet errors are affected by the reception quality of theblock with the poorest reception quality. Therefore, in this case,reception quality should be made as uniform as possible for blocks #1 to#4. This can be achieved by performing assignment as shown in FIG. 50and FIG. 51. Also, preferably, the number of times assignment isperformed to A_b1, A_b2, A_b3, and A_b4 should be made as uniform aspossible for blocks #1 to #4. The difference in the number of timesassignment is performed should preferably be once at most. Since thenumber of symbols is not necessarily a multiple of 4 (bits) (the numberof bits that can be transmitted in one symbol in 16QAM), a difference ofone time may occur however assignment is performed.

Here, a case in which 16QAM is used has been described by way ofexample, but the same effect can also be obtained when the sameprocessing is performed with 64QAM. However, the same effect cannotnecessarily be obtained in the case of QPSK since there is no differencein reception quality between A_b1 and A_b2. Nevertheless, since thepossibility of a difference in reception quality arising due todistortion caused by the transmitting apparatus and receiving apparatuscannot be denied, there is a possibility of such an effect beingobtained. Also, the ability to improve reception quality if transmissionis performed after executing interleave processing as shown in FIG. 50and FIG. 51 and iterative APP or iterative Max-log APP is performed bythe receiver is the same as when interleave processing as shown in FIG.48 and FIG. 49 is executed.

In the above explanation, a case has been described in whichper-modulated-signal (stream) and intra-modulated-signal (stream)interleave patterns are made different by making the bit shift amountsdifferent, but the method of making per-modulated-signal (stream) andintra-modulated-signal (stream) interleave patterns different is notlimited to this. For example, as stated earlier, there is a methodwhereby random interleaving is performed for each modulated signal. Inthis case there is a drawback of the computation scale increasing, butas regards improving data reception quality the same effect can beobtained as in the above examples.

A method can also be conceived of whereby a plurality of blockinterleavers such as shown in FIG. 34 are provided, and different blockinterleave processing is executed for each bit of each modulated signal(A_b1, A_b2, B_b1, B_b2, . . . ). Essentially, the important point isthat different data arrangement is performed for each bit of eachmodulated signal (A_b1, A_b2, B_b1, B_b2, . . . ).

The configuration of a transmitting apparatus of this implementationexample will now be described in detail.

FIG. 52 shows a configuration of a transmitting apparatus of thisimplementation example. Transmitting apparatus 5000 shown in FIG. 52 isan example of a configuration for transmitting a pair of modulatedsignals as shown in FIG. 48 and FIG. 49 or as shown in FIG. 50 and FIG.51 from respective antennas. In FIG. 52, configuration elements thatoperate in the same way as in FIG. 29 and FIG. 33 are assigned the samereference codes as in FIG. 29 and FIG. 33.

Transmitting apparatus 5000 in FIG. 52 differs from transmittingapparatus 2900 in FIG. 29 and transmitting apparatus 3300 in FIG. 33 ingenerating two transmit signals S4_A and S4_B from two streams S andS1_B by means of stream A transmit signal generation section 5010 andstream B transmit signal generation section 5020, and transmitting thesetransmit signals from two antennas 17_A and 17_B.

In addition, order switching sections 5001 are provided between encodingsections 11 and mapping section 3304.

First, stream A transmit signal generation section 5010 will bedescribed. Encoding sections 11_1, 11_2, 11_3, 11_4, 11_5, and 11_6 areconfigured by means of identical encoders. Thus, by making orderswitching (interleave patterns) different for following order switchingsections 5001_1, 5001_2, 5001_3, 5001_4, 5001_5, and 5001_6, receptionquality can be improved as described above using the factor graph inFIG. 45.

Each of order switching sections 5001_1, 5001_2, 5001_3, 5001_4, 5001_5,and 5001_6 performs different order switching. Order switching section5001_1 actually has post-encoding data 2902_1 and control signal S10 asinput, performs data order switching such as shown in FIG. 48, forexample, in accordance with the control information frame configuration,and outputs post-order-switching encoded data 5002_1. Order switchingsections 5001_2, 5001_3, 5001_4, 5001_5, and 5001_6 also perform thesame operation as order switching section 5001_1.

Mapping section 3304 obtains transmit symbols—that is, baseband signalS3—by performing mapping processing of post-order-switching encoded data5002_1, 5002_2, 5002_3, 5002_4, 5002_5, and 5002_6 based on frameconfiguration related information included in control signal S10.

Here, of course, the number of encoding sections 11 and order switchingsections 5001 operated differs according to the modulation method.

The configuration of stream B transmit signal generation section 5020 issimilar to the configuration of stream A transmit signal generationsection 5010. The important points are that stream A encoding sections11 and stream B encoding sections 11 (not shown) have the same encodingmethod, and that provision is made for all stream order switchingsection 5001 and stream B order switching section (not shown) orderswitching processing to be different, as shown in FIG. 48 and FIG. 49,for example. This enables a receiving apparatus to obtain high-qualitydata.

A receiving apparatus that receives transmit signals transmitted fromtransmitting apparatus 5000 in FIG. 51 may be configured as shown inabove-described FIG. 42B, for example.

(5-3) Implementation Example 3

In (5-1) Implementation Example 1 and (5-2) Implementation Example 2above, cases have been described in which interleave processing (thatis, processing that assigns bits to symbols) is made to differ betweenmodulated signals (streams), as with a pair of modulated signals(streams) A and B as shown in FIG. 48 and FIG. 49 or a pair of modulatedsignals (streams) A and B as shown in FIG. 50 and FIG. 51. A method willnow be described whereby interleave processing (that is, processing thatassigns bits to symbols) is made the same between modulated signals(streams), and interleaving is made to differ by other means.

For example, interleave processing (that is, processing that assignsbits to symbols) for modulated signal (stream) A transmitted fromantenna 114A (or 17_A) and interleave processing (that is, processingthat assigns bits to symbols) for modulated signal (stream) Btransmitted from antenna 114B (or 17_B) may both be made as shown inFIG. 48. Similarly, for example, interleave processing (that is,processing that assigns bits to symbols) for modulated signal (stream) Atransmitted from antenna 114A (or 17_A) and interleave processing (thatis, processing that assigns bits to symbols) for modulated signal(stream) B transmitted from antenna 114B (or 17_B) may both be made asshown in FIG. 50.

If a modulated signal (stream) A frame configuration and modulatedsignal (stream) B frame configuration are made the same in this way,modulated signal (stream) A encoding sections and order switchingsections and modulated signal (stream) B encoding sections and orderswitching sections can be given the same configurations, enablingcorresponding circuit commonality to be achieved and the transmittingapparatus configuration to be simplified.

FIG. 53 shows a transmitting apparatus configuration of thisimplementation example that enables the same effect to be obtained aswhen different interleave patterns are used. Transmitting apparatus 5300in FIG. 53 differs from transmitting apparatus 5000 in FIG. 52 intransmitting OFDM signals, but is similar to transmitting apparatus 5000in FIG. 52 with regard to interleave processing (that is, processingthat assigns bits to symbols) that is a characteristic of thisembodiment. Distinctive important points in the configuration of thisimplementation example other than the characteristics in (5-2)Implementation Example 2 are described below.

In FIG. 53, in which parts corresponding to those in FIG. 52 areassigned the same reference codes as in FIG. 52, transmitting apparatus5300 has stream A transmit signal generation section 5310 and stream Btransmit signal generation section 5320. Here, the generalconfigurations of stream A transmit signal generation section 5310 andstream B transmit signal generation section 5320 are almost the same,differing only in part, and therefore stream A transmit signalgeneration section 5310 will be described below as an example.

Arranging section 5301 has baseband signal 3305 as input, performsarrangement, and outputs post-arrangement baseband signal 5302.Serial/parallel conversion section (S/P) 5303 has post-arrangementbaseband signal 5302 as input, performs serial/parallel conversion, andoutputs parallel signal 5304. Inverse Fourier transform section (IFFT)5305 has parallel signal 5304 as input, performs an inverse Fouriertransform, and outputs post-Fourier-transform signal S3—that is, an OFDMsignal. Radio section 16 has post-Fourier-transform signal S3 as input,and forms transmit signal S4_A by executing processing such as frequencyconversion and amplification. Transmit signal S4_A is output as a radiowave from antenna 17_A.

An important point in transmitting apparatus 5300 is that arrangementprocessing differs between the arranging section (5301) of stream Atransmit signal generation section 5310 and the arranging section (notshown) of stream B transmit signal generation section 5320. This pointwill now be explained in detail using FIG. 54.

If the arrangement processing performed by arranging section 5301 ofstream A transmit signal generation section 5310 and the arrangementprocessing performed by the arranging section (not shown) of stream Btransmit signal generation section 5320 are made to differ, symbolassignment to a frequency (subcarrier) of OFDM signals transmitted fromantennas 17_A and 17_B can be made to differ between the antennas.

FIG. 54 shows examples of symbol assignment that enable the same effectto be obtained as when different interleave patterns are used. FIG. 54Ashows an example in which symbols are placed regularly in the frequencydomain direction, and FIG. 54B shows an example in which symbols areplaced randomly in the frequency domain direction. The numbers in FIG.54 indicate the order of symbol assignment. If frequency-directionsymbol assignments of stream A transmitted by antenna 17_A and stream Btransmitted by antenna 17_B are made to differ as shown in FIG. 54,reception quality can be improved in a receiver by performing iterativeAPP or iterative Max-log APP.

(5-4) Implementation Example 4

In the above-described examples in FIG. 48 and FIG. 49, an example ofinterleave processing (bit assignment to symbols) has been described fora case in which the stream A modulation method and stream B modulationmethod are the same, but a case can also be conceived of in which thestream A modulation method and stream B modulation method are different.In this case, a bit shift amount should not be fixed but variedaccording to the modulation method. An example illustrating this casewill now be described in detail using FIG. 55.

FIG. 55A shows an example of interleave processing (bit assignment tosymbols) for antenna 114A (stream A) and antenna 114B (stream B) whenQPSK is the modulation method of both stream A and stream B. Theprocessing shown in FIG. 55A is similar to the processing shown in FIG.48 (b) and FIG. 49 (b).

FIG. 55B shows an example of interleave processing (bit assignment tosymbols) for antenna 114A (stream A) and antenna 114B (stream B)presented in this implementation example. FIG. 55B shows a case in whichthe stream A modulation method is 16QAM and the stream B modulationmethod is QPSK.

As can be seen by comparing processing that assigns bits to symbols forantenna 114B (stream B) shown in FIG. 55A with processing that assignsbits to symbols for antenna 114B (stream B) shown in FIG. 55B, with theinterleaving method presented in this implementation example provisionis made for the bit shift amount (arrangement pattern) for antenna 114B(stream B) to be made to differ according to the modulation method usedfor antenna 114A (stream A).

This processing is effective in a system that allows the stream Amodulation method and stream B modulation method to be different. Thatis to say, in the case of such a system, frame configurations such asshown in FIG. 48 and FIG. 49 or FIG. 50 and FIG. 51 are not sufficient,and it is necessary also to add frame configurations (processing thatassigns bits to symbols) as shown in FIG. 55B.

In order to implement this, taking transmitting apparatus 5000 in FIG.52 as an example, the arrangement patterns of order switching sections5001_1 to 5001_6 should be switched according to modulation methodinformation included in control signal S10. By this means, settings canbe made to make the pattern of bit assignment to symbols between streamsand within each stream different not only when the stream A and stream Bmodulation methods are the same, but also when they are different. As aresult, reception quality can also be improved in a receiver byperforming iterative APP or iterative Max-log APP when the stream A andstream B modulation methods are different.

(5-5) Advantageous Effect

As described above, according to Implementation Examples 1 to 4, with atransmitting apparatus having an encoding section that forms blockencoded data of each stream (transmit data) by executing block encodingprocessing on each stream, a plurality of arranging sections (orderswitching sections) that arrange block encoded data of each stream, anda modulation section (mapping section) that forms data symbolsconfigured by collecting together encoded data of different encodedblocks by modulating post-arrangement block encoded data, burst errorscan be suppressed by means of a comparatively simple configurationwithout varying the block size of encoded blocks even when the number ofmodulation multi-values is increased, and reception quality wheniterative decoding is performed by a receiving apparatus can beimproved, by providing for the arrangement patterns of the plurality ofarranging sections (order switching sections) to be mutually different.

In Implementation Examples 1 to 4, the case of MIMO system using spatialmultiplexing has mainly been described, but reception quality wheniterative decoding is performed on the receiving side can also beimproved when the arrangement patterns in FIG. 48 and FIG. 49 or thearrangement patterns in FIG. 50 and FIG. 51 are used as interleavepatterns of interleaver (π_(a)) 4202_1 and interleaver (π_(a)) 4202_2 ofa transmitting apparatus that transmits a signal (encoded data) of aplurality of streams from a single antenna, as shown in FIG. 46. Thiscan be understood by considering a factor graph.

That is to say, by executing different interleaving (arrangement) foreach encoded data in a plurality of encoded data, as in the case of theframe configurations in FIG. 48, FIG. 49, FIG. 50, and FIG. 51, datareception quality can be improved when iterative detection is performedon the receiving apparatus side. The modulation method may also beswitched by the transmitting apparatus according to the communicationconditions, as with the frame configurations in FIG. 48, FIG. 49, FIG.50, and FIG. 51. Such a transmitting apparatus can be implemented byusing the stream A transmit signal generation section 5010, 5310, or5610 configuration in FIG. 52, FIG. 53, or FIG. 57, for example.

With the frame configurations in FIG. 7, FIG. 8, and FIG. 28, also, forexample, executing different interleaving (arrangement) for differentencoded data (for example, using different interleave patterns forencoded data #1 and encoded data #2) is effective in the same way asdescribed above. In short, when a symbol is configured using a pluralityof encoded data, the use of different interleave patterns for differentencoded data is effective in improving data reception quality on thereceiving apparatus side.

(5-6) Implementation Example 5

In this implementation example, a configuration example will bedescribed that differs from a configuration in which a plurality ofencoding sections are provided that execute the same encoding processingfor each antenna.

In FIG. 56, in which parts corresponding to those in FIG. 53 areassigned the same reference codes as in FIG. 53, transmitting apparatus5500 inputs transmit data (stream) S1 to encoding section 5501. Encodingsection 5501 encodes transmit data S1 and outputs encoded data 5502.Encoding section 5501 is essentially configured so that the functions ofencoding sections 11_1 to 11_6 such as shown in FIG. 53 are performed byone encoding section. Order switching section 5503 switches the order ofencoded data 5502 output from encoding section 5501, and outputspost-order-switching data 5504. Order switching section 5503 performs,for example, the order switching shown in FIG. 48, FIG. 49, FIG. 50, orFIG. 51, and outputs post-order-switching data 5504 to assignmentsection 5505.

Assignment section 5505 assigns and outputs post-order-switching data5504 to mapping section 5507_A and mapping section 5507_B. Thus, intransmitting apparatus 5500, provision is made for post-order-switchingdata 5504 obtained by single-system encoding section 5501 and orderswitching section 5503 to be assigned to plurality of mapping sections5507_A and 5507_B by assignment section 5505. By this means, withtransmitting apparatus 5500, a factor graph as shown in FIG. 45 can beobtained on the receiving side, and reception quality can be improved,without arrangement processing to give post-arrangement data 5506_A anddata 5506_B different arrangement patterns having to be performed byorder switching section 5503 (that is, simply by having order switchingsection 5503 perform one of arrangement processings, such as one ofprocessing shown in FIG. 48, FIG. 49, FIG. 50, or FIG. 51, for example).By employing a configuration whereby transmit data S1 is input to asingle encoding section 5501 and post-order-switching data 5504 isassigned to antennas 17_A and 17_B in this way, the same effect as inabove Implementation Examples 1 to 4 can be obtained with a simpleconfiguration.

(5-7) Implementation Example 6

In the above example, a case has been described in which the sameencoding is performed for each antenna, but based on a consideration ofa factor graph, the same reception quality improvement effect asdescribed above can also be obtained, for example, when differentencoding is performed by encoding sections provided in stream A transmitsignal generation section 5010 and encoding sections provided in streamB transmit signal generation section 5020 in FIG. 52. In this case,however, encoding sections cannot be shared between streams, andtherefore the computational complexity and circuit scale become larger.Of course, processing that performs different encoding for each streamand processing that performs different order switching for each streammay both be executed.

In this embodiment, cases have mainly been described in which an LDPCcode is used as a block code, but this embodiment can also be widelyapplied to block codes other than an LDPC code. Block codes other thanan LDPC code include a BCH code, Reed-Solomon code, and so forth. Also,in this embodiment, cases have mainly been described by way of examplein which a block code such as an LDPC code is used, but bit assignmentto symbols according to this embodiment can also be applied to a case inwhich a trellis code such as a turbo code or convolutional code is used.

In this embodiment, single carrier and OFDM cases have been described byway of example, but the present invention can also be widely applied toCDMA and other multicarrier methods apart from OFDM.

In this embodiment, cases have been described by way of example in whichthe number of transmit antennas is two, the number of receive antennasis two, and the number of transmit modulated signals (the number ofstreams) is two, but the present invention is not limited to this, andthe same effect can also be obtained by implementation in a similar wayfor a case in which the number of transmit antennas is three or more andthe number of transmit modulated signals is three or more.

In this embodiment, MIMO system using spatial multiplexing has mainlybeen presupposed, and therefore data symbols are transmitted placed atthe same time and the same frequency. Also, in order to estimate channelcondition such as shown in Equation (1), known signals comprising apilot symbol, preamble, and control signal for notifying a communicatingparty of the modulation method, are transmitted separately from datasymbols.

Embodiment 9

In Embodiment 8, an embodiment in which a block code is used wasdescribed. In this embodiment, an implementation method is described indetail for a case in which a trellis code such as a turbo code orconvolutional code, for example, is used.

In FIG. 57, in which parts corresponding to those in FIG. 52 areassigned the same reference codes as in FIG. 52, transmitting apparatus5600 has stream A transmit signal generation section 5610 and stream Btransmit signal generation section 5620, and thereby generates transmitsignal S4_A transmitted from antenna 17_A and transmit signal S4_Btransmitted from antenna 17_B. Stream A transmit signal generationsection 5610 and stream B transmit signal generation section 5620 havesimilar configurations, and therefore the configuration of stream Atransmit signal generation section 5610 will be described in detail asrepresentative of the two.

Stream A transmit signal generation section 5610 has interleavers 5601_1to 5601_6 provided between encoding sections 11_1 to 11_6 and mappingsection 3304. Interleavers 5601_1 to 5601_6 have encoded data 2902_1 to2902_6 as input, and output post-interleaving data 5602_1 to 5602_6 tomapping section 3304.

Here, each of encoding sections 11_1 to 11_6 of stream A transmit signalgeneration section 5610 performs the same trellis encoding (for example,convolutional encoding or turbo encoding). Each encoding section (notshown) of stream B transmit signal generation section 5620 also performsthe same trellis encoding as encoding sections 11_1 to 11_6 of stream. Atransmit signal generation section 5610. By this means, for example,high-speed encoding processing or shared use of encoding sectionsbecomes possible. The same encoding need not necessarily be performedfor stream A and stream B, but providing commonality of encodingprocessing is advantageous in terms of speeding up encoding processingand reducing the computational complexity.

The interleave patterns of interleavers 5601_1 to 5601_6 are set so asto be mutually different in the same way as with order switchingsections 5001_1 to 5001_6 of Embodiment 8 (see FIG. 52). Not only theinterleave patterns of interleavers 5601_1 to 5601_6 of stream Atransmit signal generation section 5610, but also the interleavepatterns of all the interleavers, including the interleavers (not shown)of stream B transmit signal generation section 5620, are set so as to bemutually different.

As a method of setting different interleave patterns, when blockinterleavers as shown in FIG. 34 are used, for example, settings may bemade so that the number of steps in the reading direction and writingdirection of the interleave patterns of interleavers 5601_1 to 5601_6are different. Alternatively, random interleavers that are all differentmay be used.

A factor graph in Embodiment 8 explains the effect of a VIP (VaryingInterleave Pattern) taking an LDPC code as an example, and since thesame factor graph can also be drawn for a case in which a convolutionalcode or turbo code undergoes sum-product decoding, the same receptionquality improvement effect as in Embodiment 8 can also be obtained whenVIP is used for a convolutional code or turbo code.

That is to say, according to this embodiment, using VIP for a trelliscode such as a convolutional code or turbo code enables receptionquality to be improved in a receiving apparatus by performing iterativeAPP or iterative Max-log APP for the same reason as stated in Embodiment8.

A case in which a turbo code, in particular, is used as a trellis codewill now be described in detail.

FIG. 58 shows an example of the configuration of a turbo encoder.Element encoder #1 has data 5701 as input, and outputs encoded data5703. Interleaver 5704 has data 5701 as input, and outputspost-interleaving data 5705. Element encoder #2 has post-interleavingdata 5705 as input, and outputs encoded data 5707.Puncturing/multiplexing section 5708 has encoded data 5703 and 5707 asinput, performs puncturing and multiplexing processing on these, andoutputs post-puncturing-and-multiplexing encoded data 5709. Multiplexingsection 5710 has post-puncturing-and-multiplexing encoded data 5709 asinput, multiplexes these, and outputs post-multiplexing data 5711.

Encoding sections 11_1 to 11_6 in FIG. 57 are configured by means ofturbo encoders as shown in FIG. 58. Therefore, cases in whichinterleavers 5601_1 to 5601_6 mentioned in the above description areprovided include a case in which interleaver 5704 incorporated in aturbo encoder is made use of, and a case in which an interleaver isprovided separately from interleaver 5704.

If interleaver 5704 incorporated in a turbo encoder is made use of, thefollowing problems arise if settings are made so that the interleavepatterns are different, as in the above description.

<1> With a turbo code, the design of an encoder is important from thestandpoint of ensuring reception quality. Also, it is difficult toprovide a plurality of interleave patterns offering good performance.

<2> Even if different interleavers can be provided, it is difficult todesign corresponding decoders in a receiving apparatus. Also,incorporating different decoders increases the computational complexityof a receiving apparatus. When the same code is used, commonality and soforth can easily be implemented, enabling the computational complexityof a receiving apparatus to be kept low.

Thus, when computational complexity is taken into consideration, it isnot desirable for interleave patterns incorporated in turbo encoders tobe made to differ.

In this embodiment, in consideration of this point, plurality ofinterleavers 5601_1 to 5601_6 having different interleave patterns areprovided in a stage subsequent to encoding sections 11_1 to 11_6separately from the interleavers of the turbo encoders. By this means,reception quality can be improved in a receiving apparatus by performingiterative APP or iterative Max-log APP for the same reason as stated inEmbodiment 8. As in Embodiment 8, a reception quality improvement effectcan be obtained irrespective of whether the stream A modulation methodand stream B modulation method are the same or different.

A receiving apparatus that receives transmit signals transmitted fromtransmitting apparatus 5600 in FIG. 57 may be configured as shown inabove-described FIG. 42B, for example.

The configuration as shown in FIG. 53 can also be considered as anexample of a transmitting apparatus configuration different from that inFIG. 57. Order switching sections 5001_1 to 5001_6 in FIG. 53 correspondto interleavers 5601_1 to 5601_6 in FIG. 57. Therefore, a differentswitching pattern (interleave pattern) is set for each of orderswitching sections 5001_1 to 5001_6 in FIG. 53. However, the switchingpatterns of stream A transmit signal generation section 5310 and streamB transmit signal generation section 5320 are made the same. Also, thearrangement pattern of arranging section 5301 for determining symbolassignment to subcarriers is set so as to differ for stream A and streamB. By this means, the same effect as described above can be obtained,thereby improving data reception quality in the receiving apparatus.

As described above, according to this embodiment, with a transmittingapparatus having an encoding section that forms trellis encoded data byexecuting trellis encoding processing on each stream (transmit data), aplurality of interleavers that arrange trellis encoded data of eachstream, and a modulation section (mapping section) that forms datasymbols configured by collecting together different intra-trellisencoded data by modulating post-switching trellis encoded data, bursterrors can be suppressed by means of a comparatively simpleconfiguration without varying the block size of encoded blocks even whenthe number of modulation multi-values is increased, and receptionquality when iterative decoding is performed by a receiving apparatuscan be improved, by providing for the arrangement patterns of theplurality of interleavers to be mutually different.

In this embodiment, single carrier and OFDM cases have been described byway of example, but the present invention can also be widely applied toCDMA and other multicarrier methods apart from OFDM.

In this embodiment, MIMO system using spatial multiplexing has beenpresupposed, and therefore data symbols are transmitted placed at thesame time and the same frequency. Also, in order to estimate channelcondition such as shown in Equation (1), known signals comprising apilot symbol, preamble, and control signal for notifying a communicatingparty of the modulation method, are transmitted separately from datasymbols.

In this embodiment, cases have been described by way of example in whichthe number of transmit antennas is two, the number of receive antennasis two, and the number of transmit modulated signals (the number ofstreams) is two, but the present invention is not limited to this, andthe same effect can also be obtained by implementation in a similar wayfor a case in which the number of transmit antennas is three or more andthe number of transmit modulated signals is three or more.

In this embodiment, the case of a trellis code has been described, butthe same effect as in this embodiment can also be obtained when atrellis code and block code are combined as described in Embodiment 7.

In this embodiment, the case of MIMO system using spatial multiplexinghas been described in particular, but if provision is made for trellisencoding processing to be performed by encoding sections (outerencoders) 4201_1 and 4201_2, and for the interleave patterns ofinterleaver (π_(a)) 4202_1 and interleaver (π_(a)) 4202_2 to bedifferent, in a transmitting apparatus that transmits a signal of aplurality of streams (encoded data) from a single antenna, as shown inFIG. 46, reliability propagation is performed for more times (orfrequencies depending on the case) when iterative decoding is performedon the receiving apparatus side than when the interleave patterns aremade the same. Therefore, there is a higher possibility of time (orfrequency depending on the case) and space diversity gain improving, anddata reception quality can thereby be improved. This can be understoodby considering a factor graph.

That is to say, by executing different interleaving (arrangement) foreach encoded data in a plurality of encoded data, as in the case of theframe configurations in FIG. 48, FIG. 49, FIG. 50, and FIG. 51, datareception quality can be improved when iterative detection is performedon the receiving apparatus side. The modulation method may also beswitched by the transmitting apparatus according to the communicationconditions, as with the frame configurations in FIG. 48, FIG. 49, FIG.50, and FIG. 51. Such a transmitting apparatus can be implemented byusing the stream A transmit signal generation section 5010, 5310, or5610 configuration in FIG. 52, FIG. 53, or FIG. 57, for example.

With the frame configurations in FIG. 7, FIG. 8, and FIG. 28, also, forexample, executing different interleaving (arrangement) for differentencoded data (for example, using different interleave patterns forencoded data #1 and encoded data #2) is effective in the same way asdescribed above. In short, when a symbol is configured using a pluralityof encoded data, the use of different interleave patterns for differentencoded data is effective in improving data reception quality on thereceiving apparatus side.

Embodiment 10

In this embodiment, an implementation method is described in which a bitassignment method described in Embodiment 1, Embodiment 5, Embodiment 6,or Embodiment 7 is used, and an access method is applied that uses amulticarrier method such as OFDM. As an example, an implementationmethod will be described in detail here for a case in which OFDM isused.

FIG. 60 shows examples of communication conditions between a basestation and terminals. In FIG. 60, base station 5901 communicates withterminal A, terminal B, terminal C, and terminal D. Although onlyterminal A to terminal D are shown here, other terminals actually exist.FIG. 60A and FIG. 60B show cases in which radio waves are transmittedfrom base station 5901 to terminal A to terminal D in the followingcases.

Case 1 (FIG. 60A): When distances between the base station and terminalA to terminal D are long

Case 2 (FIG. 60B): When distances between the base station and terminalA to terminal D are short

This embodiment will be described taking these cases as examples. Whilethe names “terminal A, terminal B, terminal C, terminal D” are assignedin this embodiment, this nomenclature is used only to identifyterminals, and does not indicate that “terminal A” is always a fixedterminal.

FIG. 61 shows an example of data flow between a base station and aterminal. FIG. 61 (a) shows a signal transmitted from the base stationto a terminal, and FIG. 61 (b) shows a signal transmitted from aterminal to the base station.

Control information symbol 6001 is a symbol for controlling a terminaltransmitted by the base station. Pilot symbol 6002 is a symbol known tothe transmitter and receiver, for example. A terminal receives a pilotsymbol, and estimates channel condition or creates Channel StateInformation (CSI), for example, based on the reception state of thispilot symbol.

Feedback information 6003_1 indicates feedback information transmittedto the base station by terminal A. Above-mentioned CSI, for example, istransmitted as feedback information 6003_1. Similarly, feedbackinformation 6003_X indicates feedback information transmitted to thebase station by terminal X.

Transmitting method notification symbol 6004 is a symbol that includesfrequency assignment, modulation method, coding rate, and suchlikeinformation. The base station determines a transmitting method based onfeedback information transmitted from a terminal, and forms andtransmits data symbols in accordance with the determined transmittingmethod. Transmitting method notification symbol 6004 is s symbol fornotifying this transmitting method information. This transmitting methodwill be described later herein.

Channel estimation symbol 6005 is a symbol for estimation of channelcondition by a terminal. A terminal estimates channel condition based ona received channel estimation symbol 6005, and modulates data symbols6006 based on the estimated channel condition. The base stationtransmits data symbols 6006 after channel estimation symbol 6005.

FIG. 62 shows examples of the method of bit assignment to symbols whenthe modulation method is QPSK and when the modulation method is 16QAM.FIG. 62A shows an example of a method of bit assignment to symbols inCase 1 (when the distances between the base station and terminal A toterminal D are long, as shown in FIG. 60A), and FIG. 62B shows anexample of a method of bit assignment to symbols in Case 2 (when thedistances between the base station and terminal A to terminal D areshort, as shown in FIG. 60B).

In Case 1, a QPSK modulation method is selected in order to ensure thereception quality of data from the base station in terminal A toterminal D. An example of a QPSK bit assignment method at this time isshown in FIG. 62A (X) and FIG. 62A (Y).

As in the descriptions of Embodiment 1, Embodiment 5, Embodiment 6, andEmbodiment 7, #X-Y in FIG. 62 indicates the Y'th bit (bit number Y among100 bits) of the X'th encoded block (data). For example, #1-1 indicatesthe 1st bit of the 1st encoded block (data). Similarly, #2-48 indicatesthe 48th bit of the 2nd encoded block (data).

With the frame configuration in FIG. 62A, data relating to 1st encodedblock (data) #1 is transmitted using QPSK bit b1, and data relating to2nd encoded block (data) #2 is transmitted using QPSK bit b2. In FIG.62A (X), #1 (encoded block (data) #1) is data transmitted by the basestation to terminal A, and #2 (encoded block (data) #2) in FIG. 62A (X)is data transmitted by the base station to terminal B. In FIG. 62A (Y),#1 (encoded block (data) #1) is data transmitted by the base station toterminal C, and #2 (encoded block (data) #2) in FIG. 62A (Y) is datatransmitted by the base station to terminal D.

In Case 2, 16QAM is selected in order to ensure the reception quality ofdata from the base station in terminal A to terminal D. An example of aQPSK bit assignment method at this time is shown in FIG. 62B.

With the frame configuration in FIG. 62B, data relating to 1st encodedblock (data) #1 is transmitted using 16QAM bit b1, data relating to 2ndencoded block (data) #2 is transmitted using bit b2, data relating to3rd encoded block (data) #3 is transmitted using bit b3, and datarelating to 4th encoded block (data) #4 is transmitted using bit b4. InFIG. 62B, #1 (encoded block (data) #1) is data transmitted by the basestation to terminal A, #2 (encoded block (data) #2) in FIG. 62B is datatransmitted by the base station to terminal B, #3 (encoded block (data)#3) in FIG. 62B is data transmitted by the base station to terminal C,and #4 (encoded block (data) #4) in FIG. 62B is data transmitted by thebase station to terminal D.

FIG. 63 shows examples of frame configurations on the time-frequencyaxes of a modulated signal transmitted by a base station when an OFDMmethod is used. For the sake of simplicity, FIG. 63 shows only frameconfigurations of data symbols 6006 in FIG. 61. FIG. 63A shows anexample of a frame configuration in Case 1 (when the distances betweenthe base station and terminal A to terminal D are long, as shown in FIG.60A), and FIG. 62B shows an example of a frame configuration in Case 2(when the distances between the base station and terminal A to terminalD are short, as shown in FIG. 60B).

In Case 1, as illustrated in FIG. 62, the base station configures oneQPSK symbol by means of terminal A data and terminal B data, andtransmits terminal A data and terminal B data using carrier 1, carrier2, and carrier 3, as indicated by reference code 6201 in FIG. 63A.Similarly, the base station configures one QPSK symbol by means ofterminal C data and terminal D data, and transmits terminal C data andterminal D data using carrier 4, carrier 5, and carrier 6, as indicatedby reference code 6202 in FIG. 63A. The other carriers (carrier 7,carrier 8, carrier 9, and carrier 10) are used when transmitting data toterminals other than terminal A to terminal D.

In Case 2, as illustrated in FIG. 62, the base station configures one16QAM symbol by means of terminal A data, terminal B data, terminal Cdata, and terminal D data, and transmits terminal A data, terminal Bdata, terminal C data, and terminal D data using carrier 1, carrier 2,and carrier 3, as indicated by reference code 6203 in FIG. 63B. Theother carriers (carrier 4, carrier 5, carrier 6, carrier 7, carrier 8,carrier 9, and carrier 10) are used when transmitting data to terminalsother than terminal A to terminal D.

FIG. 64 shows an example of the configuration of a base station fortransmitting signals with the frame configurations shown in FIG. 63.Selector 6301 of base station 6300 has data S1 as input, and distributesdata S1 as data of each terminal. Specifically, selector 6301 outputsdata 6302_1 for transmission to terminal A, data 6302_2 for transmissionto terminal B, . . . , data 6302_X for transmission to terminal X.

Encoding section 6303_1 has data 6302_1 for transmission to terminal Aas input, and obtains encoded data 6304_1 for transmission to terminalA. Encoding section 6303_2 obtains encoded data 6304_2 for transmissionto terminal B. Similarly, encoded data 6304_3 for transmission toterminal C, encoded data 6304_4 for transmission to terminal D, . . . ,encoded data 6304_X for transmission to terminal X, are obtained.

Mapping section 6305 has encoded data 6304_1 for transmission toterminal A, encoded data 6304_2 for transmission to terminal B, encodeddata 6304_3 for transmission to terminal C, encoded data 6304_4 fortransmission to terminal D, . . . , encoded data 6304_X for transmissionto terminal X, and frame configuration signal 6321, as input, obtainstransmit symbols—that is, baseband signal 6306—by performing mapping sothat a frame configuration such as shown in FIG. 61, FIG. 62, or FIG. 63is created, and outputs this baseband signal 6306.

Serial/parallel conversion section (S/P) 6307 has baseband signal 6306as input, performs serial/parallel conversion, and outputs parallelsignal 6308. Inverse Fourier transform section (IFFT) 6309 has parallelsignal 6308 as input, performs an inverse Fourier transform, and outputspost-Fourier-transform signal 6310. Radio section 6311 haspost-Fourier-transform signal 6310 as input, executes processing such asfrequency conversion and amplification, and outputs transmit signal 6312thereby obtained. Transmit signal 6312 is output as a radio wave fromantenna 6313.

Receiving section 6316 has received signal 6315 received by antenna 6314as input, executes processing such as frequency conversion,demodulation, and decoding, and outputs received digital signal 6317.

Transmitting method determination section 6318 has received digitalsignal 6317 as input, determines the transmitting method of a signaladdressed to each terminal based on feedback information transmittedfrom a terminal (for example, CSI transmitted by each terminal), andoutputs that information 6319.

Frame configuration signal generation section 6320 has transmittingmethod information 6319 for a signal addressed to each terminal asinput, determines a frame configuration (frequency assignment,modulation method, coding rate, and so forth) based on this transmittingmethod information 6319, and outputs the determined information as frameconfiguration signal 6321 to selector 6301, encoding sections 6303_1 to6303_X, and mapping section 6305.

FIG. 65 shows an example of the configuration of a terminal according tothis embodiment. radio section 6403 of terminal 6400 has received signal6402 received by antenna 6401 as input, executes processing such asfrequency conversion and quadrature demodulation, and outputs basebandsignal 6404. Channel condition estimation section 6405 has basebandsignal 6404 as input, estimates channel condition based on pilot symbol6002 (see FIG. 61) included in baseband signal 6404, and outputs channelestimation signal 6406.

Logarithmic likelihood calculation section 6407 has channel estimationsignal 6406 as input, performs logarithmic likelihood ratio calculationusing a method such as shown in Non-patent Document 3 to Non-patentDocument 8, and outputs logarithmic likelihood ratio 6408 of each bit.Bit selection section 6409 has each-bit logarithmic likelihood ratio6408 and frame configuration signal 6420 as input, selects only a bitaddressed to that station in the frame configuration in FIG. 63, andoutputs logarithmic likelihood ratio 6410 of the selected bit. Decodingsection 6411 has logarithmic likelihood ratio 6410 of the selected bitas input, obtains receive data 6412 by performing decoding, and outputsthis receive data 6412.

Feedback information generation section 6413 has channel estimationsignal 6406 as input, generates feedback information 6414 based on thischannel estimation signal 6406, and outputs this feedback information6414. Feedback information 6414 may be information in which channelestimation signal 6404 is quantized, or may be information relating to asubcarrier candidate for which transmission to the base station isdesired, for example. Furthermore, feedback information 6414 is notlimited to the above examples, and may be any information as long as itis information enabling the base station to determine subcarrierplacement. For example, feedback information 6414 may also beinformation relating to a bit error rate or packet error generation(ACK/NACK).

Transmitting section 6416 has feedback information 6414 and transmitdata 6415 as input, and obtains modulated signal 6417 addressed to thebase station from these. Modulated signal 6417 is output as a radio wavefrom antenna 6418.

By the above means, a bit assignment method described in Embodiment 1,Embodiment 5, Embodiment 6, or Embodiment 7 can be applied to an OFDM orsuchlike multicarrier access method. At this time, in addition toobtaining the effects described in Embodiment 1, Embodiment 5,Embodiment 6, and Embodiment 7, an effect of obtaining frequencydiversity gain can be attained for signals addressed to each terminalsince signals (bits) addressed to each terminal can be placed onsuitable subcarriers.

An example of a bit assignment method different from that in FIG. 62 isshown in FIG. 66. FIG. 66 differs from FIG. 66 in that, in the case ofQPSK, for example, data of encoded block #1 and encoded block #2respectively are not placed in a fixed bit (for example, b1 only or b2only), but are placed in both bits b1 and b2, as shown in FIG. 66A; andsimilarly, in the case of 16QAM, data of encoded block #1, encoded block#2, encoded block #3, and encoded block #4 respectively are not placedin a fixed bit (for example, b1 only, b2 only, b3 only, or b4 only), butare placed in plurality of bits b1, b2, b3, and b4, as shown in FIG.66B. This is the same as in FIG. 6.

An example of frame configurations that differ from the frameconfigurations in FIG. 63 is shown in FIG. 67. The frame configurationsin FIG. 67 differ from the frame configurations in FIG. 63 in thatsubcarriers used vary with time.

FIG. 67A shows a Case 1 frame configuration. Here, the base stationconfigures one QPSK symbol (corresponding to “TERMINALS A, B” in FIG.67A) by means of terminal A data and terminal B data, and configures oneQPSK symbol (corresponding to “TERMINALS C, D” in FIG. 67A) by means ofterminal C data and terminal D data.

FIG. 67B shows a Case 2 frame configuration. Here, the base stationconfigures one 16QAM symbol (corresponding to “TERMINALS A, B, C, D” inFIG. 67B) by means of terminal A data, terminal B data, terminal C data,and terminal D data.

The frame configurations as shown in FIG. 67 can also be implemented inthe same way as in FIG. 63.

Other frame configuration methods will now be described. FIG. 68 showsan example of frame configurations different from the above. Acharacteristic of FIG. 68 is that frequency assignment (subcarrierassignment) is changed with the elapse of time. FIG. 68A shows a Case 1frame configuration. Here, the base station configures one QPSK symbol(corresponding to “TERMINALS A, B” indicated by reference code 6701 inFIG. 68A) by means of terminal A data and terminal B data, andconfigures one QPSK symbol (corresponding to “TERMINALS C, D” indicatedby reference code 6702 in FIG. 68A) by means of terminal. C data andterminal D data. Then, with the elapse of time, subcarrier assignment ischanged as shown in FIG. 68A.

FIG. 68B shows a Case 2 frame configuration. Here, the base stationconfigures one 16QAM symbol (corresponding to “TERMINALS A, B, C, D”indicated by reference code 6703 in FIG. 68B) by means of terminal Adata, terminal B data, terminal C data, and terminal D data. Then, withthe elapse of time, subcarrier assignment is changed as shown in FIG.68B.

FIG. 69 shows an example of frame configurations different from theabove. A characteristic of FIG. 69 is that frequency assignment(subcarrier assignment) is changed with the elapse of time, and terminaldata forming one symbol is also changed with the elapse of time. In FIG.69, items that are the same as in FIG. 68 are assigned the samereference codes as in FIG. 68.

FIG. 69A shows a Case 1 frame configuration. At time i, the base stationfinishes communication with terminal B and terminal C. Then, it isassumed that the base station newly starts communication with terminal Pand terminal Q. At this time, the base station configures one QPSKsymbol (corresponding to “TERMINALS A, P” indicated by reference code6801 in FIG. 69A) by means of terminal A data and terminal P data, andconfigures one QPSK symbol (corresponding to “TERMINALS Q, D” indicatedby reference code 6802 in FIG. 69A) by means of terminal Q data andterminal D data.

FIG. 69B shows a Case 2 frame configuration. At time i, the base stationfinishes communication with terminal B and terminal D. Then, it isassumed that the base station newly starts communication with terminal Pand terminal Q. At this time, the base station configures one 16QAMsymbol (corresponding to “TERMINALS A, P, C, Q” indicated by referencecode 6803 in FIG. 69B) by means of terminal A data, terminal P data,terminal C data, and terminal Q data.

FIG. 70 shows an example of frame configurations different from theabove. The frame configurations in FIG. 70 combine the frameconfigurations in FIG. 67 and FIG. 69. FIG. 70A shows a Case 1 frameconfiguration. At time i, the base station finishes communication withterminal B and terminal C. Then, it is assumed that the base stationnewly starts communication with terminal P and terminal Q. FIG. 69Bshows a Case 2 frame configuration. At time i, the base station finishescommunication with terminal B and terminal D. Then, it is assumed thatthe base station newly starts communication with terminal P and terminalQ.

Encoded block bit assignment methods different from those in FIG. 62 andFIG. 66 will now be described.

FIG. 71 differs from FIG. 62 and FIG. 66 in that, when the modulationmethod is 16QAM, one symbol is configured by means of encoded block #1data and encoded block #2 data. Furthermore, one symbol is alsoconfigured by means of encoded block #1 data and encoded block #2 datawhen the modulation method is 64QAM. Here, encoded block #1 is datatransmitted by the base station to terminal A, and encoded block #2 isdata transmitted by the base station to terminal #B.

FIG. 72 shows an example of signal point arrangement in the in-phaseI—quadrature-phase Q plane of a modulation method used instead of 16QAMin the case of the 16QAM frame configuration in FIG. 71. In FIG. 72A,bits b1 to b4 are assigned to 16 •'s, and “×” symbols indicate a QPSKsignal point arrangement. Four • points are arranged around one ×, andforms a QPSK arrangement although •'s revolve. Therefore, signal pointarrangement (I,Q) in the • in-phase I—quadrature-phase Q plane can berepresented as shown in the following equation.

$\begin{matrix}\left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 39} \right) & \; \\{{\begin{pmatrix}I \\Q\end{pmatrix} = {\begin{pmatrix}X \\Y\end{pmatrix} + \begin{pmatrix}\alpha \\\beta\end{pmatrix}}}{{\begin{pmatrix}X \\Y\end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix}a \\a\end{pmatrix}},\begin{pmatrix}a \\{- a}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{- a} \\a\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{- a} \\{- a}\end{pmatrix}}{\begin{pmatrix}\alpha \\\beta\end{pmatrix} = {\begin{pmatrix}{\cos \; \phi} & {{- \sin}\; \phi} \\{\cos \; \phi} & {\cos \; \phi}\end{pmatrix}\begin{pmatrix}b \\b\end{pmatrix}}}{{\phi = \theta},{\theta + \frac{\pi}{2}},{\theta + \pi},{\theta + \frac{3\pi}{2}}}} & \lbrack 39\rbrack\end{matrix}$

FIG. 72B is a drawing for explaining a method of determining bits b1 andb2. The determination is (b1,b2)=(0,0) when a received signal is in area#1, (b1,b2)=(0,1) when in area #2, (b1,b2)=(1,1) when in area #3, and(b1,b2)=(1,0) when in area #4. Bits b3 and b4 are determined from thepositional relationship between s and a received signal.

FIG. 73 shows an example of signal points in the in-phaseI—quadrature-phase Q plane of a modulation method used instead of 64QAMin the case of the 64QAM frame configuration in FIG. 71. In FIG. 73A,bits b1 to b6 are assigned to 64 •'s, and “×” symbols indicate a QPSKsignal point arrangement. Sixteen • points are arranged around one × andforms a 16QAM arrangement although •'s revolve. Therefore, signal pointarrangement (I,Q) in the • in-phase I—quadrature-phase Q plane can berepresented as shown in the following equation.

$\begin{matrix}{\mspace{79mu} \left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 40} \right)} & \; \\{\mspace{79mu} {{\begin{pmatrix}I \\Q\end{pmatrix} = {\begin{pmatrix}X \\Y\end{pmatrix} + \begin{pmatrix}\alpha \\\beta\end{pmatrix}}}\mspace{79mu} {{\begin{pmatrix}X \\Y\end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix}a \\a\end{pmatrix}},\begin{pmatrix}a \\{- a}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{- a} \\a\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{- a} \\{- a}\end{pmatrix}}\mspace{79mu} {\begin{pmatrix}\alpha \\\beta\end{pmatrix} = {\begin{pmatrix}{\cos \; \theta} & {{- \sin}\; \theta} \\{\cos \; \theta} & {\cos \; \theta}\end{pmatrix}\begin{pmatrix}r \\s\end{pmatrix}}}{{\begin{pmatrix}r \\s\end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix}{3b} \\{3b}\end{pmatrix}},\begin{pmatrix}{3b} \\b\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{3b} \\{- b}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{3b} \\{{- 3}b}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}b \\{3b}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}b \\b\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}b \\{- b}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}b \\{{- 3}b}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{- b} \\{3b}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{- b} \\b\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{- b} \\{- b}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{- b} \\{{- 3}b}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{{- 3}b} \\{3b}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{{- 3}b} \\b\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{{- 3}b} \\{- b}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{{- 3}b} \\{{- 3}b}\end{pmatrix}}}} & \lbrack 40\rbrack\end{matrix}$

FIG. 73B is a drawing for explaining a method of determining bits b1 andb2. The determination is (b1,b2)=(0,0) when a received signal is in area#1, (b1,b2)=(0,1) when in area #2, (b1,b2)=(1,1) when in area #3, and(b1,b2)=(1,0) when in area #4. Bits b3, b4, b5, and b6 are determinedfrom the positional relationship between • and a received signal.

FIG. 74 is a drawing showing encoded block bit assignment methodsdifferent from those in FIG. 62 and FIG. 66. As shown in FIG. 74A, whenthe modulation method is 16QAM, one symbol is configured by means ofencoded block #1 data and encoded block #2 data. Furthermore, one symbolis also configured by means of encoded block #1 data and encoded block#2 data when the modulation method is 64QAM. Here, encoded block #1 isdata transmitted by the base station to terminal A, and encoded block #2is data transmitted by the base station to terminal #B.

FIG. 75 shows an example of signal point arrangement in the in-phaseI—quadrature-phase Q plane of a modulation method used instead of 64QAMin the case of the 64QAM frame configuration in FIG. 74B. In FIG. 75A,bits b1 to b6 are assigned to 64 •'s, and “×” symbols indicate a 16QAMsignal point arrangement. Four • points are arranged around one× andforms a QPSK arrangement although •'s revolve. Therefore, signal pointarrangement (I,Q) in the • in-phase I—quadrature-phase Q plane can berepresented as shown in the following equation.

$\begin{matrix}{\mspace{76mu} \left( {{Equation}\mspace{14mu} 41} \right)} & \; \\{\mspace{76mu} {{\begin{pmatrix}I \\Q\end{pmatrix} = {\begin{pmatrix}X \\Y\end{pmatrix} + \begin{pmatrix}\alpha \\\beta\end{pmatrix}}}{{\begin{pmatrix}X \\Y\end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix}{3a} \\{3a}\end{pmatrix}},\begin{pmatrix}{3a} \\a\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{3a} \\{- a}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{3a} \\{{- 3}a}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}a \\{3a}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}a \\a\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}a \\{- a}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}a \\{{- 3}a}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{- a} \\{3a}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{- a} \\a\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{- a} \\{- a}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{- a} \\{{- 3}a}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{{- 3}a} \\{3a}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{{- 3}a} \\a\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{{- 3}a} \\{- a}\end{pmatrix},\begin{pmatrix}{{- 3}a} \\{{- 3}a}\end{pmatrix}}\mspace{76mu} {\begin{pmatrix}\alpha \\\beta\end{pmatrix} = {\begin{pmatrix}{\cos \; \phi} & {{- \sin}\; \phi} \\{\cos \; \phi} & {\cos \; \phi}\end{pmatrix}\begin{pmatrix}b \\b\end{pmatrix}}}\mspace{76mu} {{\phi = \theta},{\theta + \frac{\pi}{2}},{\theta + \pi},{\theta + \frac{3\pi}{2}}}}} & \lbrack 41\rbrack\end{matrix}$

FIG. 75B is a drawing for explaining a method of determining bits b1,b2, b3, and b4. The I-Q plane is divided into 16 areas by straight linesand the I and Q axes. Bits (0,0,0,0) to (1,1,1,1) are determined for(b1, b2, b3, b4) based on the area of area #1 to area #16 in which areceived signal is present.

By the above means, a bit assignment method described in Embodiment 1,Embodiment 5, Embodiment 6, or Embodiment 7 can be applied to an OFDM orsuchlike multicarrier access method. At this time, in addition toobtaining the effects described in Embodiment 1, Embodiment 5,Embodiment 6, and Embodiment 7, an effect of obtaining frequencydiversity gain can be attained for signals addressed to each terminalsince signals (bits) addressed to each terminal can be placed onsuitable subcarriers.

A transmitting method presented in Embodiment 1, Embodiment 5,Embodiment 6, or Embodiment 7 can also be applied to transmission usingMIMO scheme such as shown in Non-patent Document 10. That is to say, atransmitting method presented in Embodiment 1, Embodiment 5, Embodiment6, or Embodiment 7 can be implemented irrespective of whethertransmission using MIMO scheme is or is not performed. Furthermore,implementation is possible irrespective of whether the coding rate ofencoded blocks are the same or different.

Embodiment 11

In this embodiment, a retransmission method (ARQ: Automatic RepeatreQuest) is described for a case in which a bit assignment methoddescribed in Embodiment 1, Embodiment 5, Embodiment 6, Embodiment 7, orEmbodiment 10 is used.

Here, as an example, a case will be described in which terminal #A andterminal #B perform communication, and terminal #A transmitsretransmission data to terminal #B.

FIG. 76 shows an example of the frame configuration of one frame in thetime domain direction of a signal transmitted by terminal #A. Controlinformation symbols 7501 are symbols for transmitting information otherthan data that is transmitted to establish communication, such as thetransmission counterpart (corresponding to terminal #B) information, thedata length, information as to whether or not this is retransmissiondata, the number of retransmissions, modulation method, error correctionmethod, and so forth, for example. Channel estimation symbol 7502 is asymbol used by communication counterpart terminal #B to estimatepropagation environment fluctuation due to fading. Data symbols 7503 aretransmitted using a configuration such as shown in FIG. 79. Theimportant point in FIG. 79 is that a CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) isadded in order to detect a data error. The configurations in FIG. 79will be described later herein.

FIG. 77 shows an example of the frame configuration of one frame in thetime domain direction of a signal transmitted by terminal #B. Channelestimation symbol 7601 is a symbol used by communication counterpartterminal #A to estimate propagation environment fluctuation due tofading. After channel estimation symbol 7601, data symbols 7602 aretransmitted. Retransmission request information symbols 7603 are symbolsfor giving information as to whether or not terminal #B requestsretransmission, and notifying the communication terminal of theretransmission method. Control information symbols 7604 are symbols fortransmitting information other than data that is transmitted toestablish communication, such as transmission counterpart (correspondingto terminal #A) information, the data length, modulation methodinformation, coding rate and encoding method information, and so forth,for example.

FIG. 78 shows an example of data flow between terminal #A and terminal#B.

FIG. 78 <1>: First, terminal #A transmits a frame #1 modulated signal inaccordance with the frame configuration in FIG. 76. The data transmittedhere is not retransmission data.

FIG. 78 <2>: Terminal #B receives the frame #1 signal, and performsdemodulation and a CRC check. As the result is that an error has notoccurred, a retransmission request is not made to terminal #A.

FIG. 78 <3>: Terminal #A transmits a frame #2 modulated signal. The datatransmitted here is not retransmission data.

FIG. 78 <4>: Terminal #B receives the frame #2 signal, and performsdemodulation and a CRC check. As the result is that an error hasoccurred, a retransmission request is made to terminal #A.

FIG. 78 <5>: As terminal #A has received a retransmission request fromterminal #B, terminal #A transmits frame #2′ corresponding to the datatransmitted in frame #2. The meaning of frame #2′ will now be explained.

Frame #2′ generation methods—that is, typical ARQ methods—include thefollowing, as shown in Non-patent Document 11.

Chase combining method: When this method is used, data identical to theinitially transmitted data is transmitted in a retransmission.

Hybrid ARQ: An encoded data line is taken as an original line, andredundant data (puncture data) generated when error correction coding isperformed is taken as a parity line. Then the original line is firsttransmitted, and if a retransmit is requested by the communicationcounterpart, the parity line is transmitted as retransmission data. Aconvolutional code puncture data (redundant data) generation method isshown in Non-patent Document 11, for example.

FIG. 78 <6>: Terminal #B receives the frame #2′ signal, and performsdemodulation and a CRC check. As the result is that an error has notoccurred, a retransmission request is not made to terminal #A.

FIG. 78 <7>: Terminal #A transmits a frame #3 modulated signal.

FIG. 78 <8>: Terminal #B receives the frame #3 signal, and performsdemodulation and a CRC check. As the result is that an error hasoccurred, a retransmission request is made to terminal #A.

FIG. 78 <9>: As terminal #A has received a retransmission request fromterminal #B, terminal #A transmits frame #3′ corresponding to the datatransmitted in frame #3. Frame #3′ generation methods are the same asdescribed above.

FIG. 78 <10>: Terminal #B receives the frame #3′ signal, and performsdemodulation and a CRC check. As the result is that an error hasoccurred, a retransmission request is made to terminal #A.

FIG. 78 <11>: As terminal #A has received a retransmission request fromterminal #B, terminal #A transmits frame #3″ corresponding to the datatransmitted in frame #3. At this time, the frame #3″ data may be thedata transmitted initially, or may be the same as in frame #3′. That isto say, frame #3″ is not limited to a specific ARQ method.

This concludes a description of data flow in a first ARQ method of thisembodiment. Next, the configuration method of data symbols 7503transmitted by terminal #A illustrated in FIG. 76, and theretransmission data generation method, will be described in detail.

FIG. 79 and FIG. 80 show examples of the configuration of data symbols7503 in FIG. 76. It is possible to select either QPSK or 16QAM as amodulation method. The relationship between the frame configurations inFIG. 79 and FIG. 80 is the same as the relationship between the frameconfigurations in FIG. 32 and FIG. 36.

The frame configurations in FIG. 79 and FIG. 80 differ from the frameconfigurations in FIG. 32 and FIG. 36 in that a CRC is included. In FIG.79 and FIG. 80, when the modulation method is QPSK (that is, in the caseof FIG. 79A and FIG. 80A), whether or not there is an error in encodedblock #1 or encoded block #2 can be checked by checking the CRC.However, it is assumed that it is not possible to determine in which ofencoded block #1 or encoded block #2 there is an error. Therefore, whenretransmission is performed, retransmission data is transmitted for bothencoded block #1 and encoded block #2.

Similarly, in FIG. 79 and FIG. 80, when the modulation method is 16QAM(that is, in the case of FIG. 79B and FIG. 80B), whether or not there isan error in encoded block #1, encoded block #2, encoded block #3, orencoded block #4 can be checked by checking the CRC. However, it isassumed that it is not possible to determine in which of encoded blocks#1, #2, #3, or #4 there is an error. Therefore, when retransmission isperformed, retransmission data is transmitted for all of encoded blocks#1, #2, #3, and #4.

FIG. 81 shows an example of the configuration of terminal #A accordingto this embodiment. In FIG. 81, items that operate in the same way as inFIG. 33 are assigned the same reference codes as in FIG. 33.

In FIG. 81, CRC adding section 8001 has encoded data 2902_1, 2902_2,2902_3, and 2902_4, and control signal S10, as input, adds a CRC at apredetermined position in a frame in accordance with control signal S10,and outputs post-CRC-addition encoded data 8002_1, 8002_2, 8002_3, and8002_4.

Receiving apparatus 8005 has received signal 8004 received from receiveantenna 8003 as input, performs predetermined processing, and outputsreceive data 8006. Retransmission information extraction section 8007has receive data 8006 as input, extracts retransmission relatedinformation—that is, information as to whether or not terminal #B hasrequested retransmission, information on the number of retransmissions,and so forth—and outputs this as retransmission related information8009. Retransmission information extraction section 8007 also outputsdata 8008 apart from retransmission related information 8009.

Frame configuration signal generation section 8010 has retransmissionrelated information 8009 as input, determines transmission conditionssuch as whether or not to transmit retransmission data, the modulationmethod, encoding method, coding rate, and so forth, based on thisinformation 8009, and outputs information relating to the determinedtransmission conditions as control signal S10.

FIG. 82 shows an example of the configuration of terminal #B accordingto this embodiment. In FIG. 82, items that operate in the same way as inFIG. 35 are assigned the same reference codes as in FIG. 35.

In FIG. 82, retransmission request section 8101 has decoded data 3014 asinput, determines whether or not to request retransmission by performinga CRC check on the decoded data, and outputs the determination result asretransmission request information 8102.

Transmitting apparatus 8104 has retransmission request information 8102and transmit data 8103 as input, generates modulated signal 8105 inaccordance with the frame configuration in FIG. 77 by executingpredetermined processing, and outputs this modulated signal 8105.Modulated signal 8105 is output as a radio wave from antenna 8106.

The above ARQ method can be implemented by means of the configuration asdescribed above.

Next, a second ARQ method different from the above first ARQ method willbe described.

FIG. 83 and FIG. 84 show examples of the configuration of data symbols7503 different from those in FIG. 79 and FIG. 80. FIG. 83 and FIG. 84show examples of the configuration of data symbols 7503 transmitted byterminal #A in FIG. 76 (see FIG. 76). The frame configurations in FIG.83 and FIG. 84 differ from the frame configurations in FIG. 79 and FIG.80 in that CRCs are inserted in encoded block units. This enableschecking for the inclusion of an error to be carried out in encodedblock units.

In FIG. 83 and FIG. 84, when the modulation method is QPSK (that is, inthe case of FIG. 83A and FIG. 84A), CRC#1 is inserted for error checkingof encoded block #1, and CRC#2 is inserted for error checking of encodedblock #2. Similarly, when the modulation method is 16QAM (that is, inthe case of FIG. 83B and FIG. 84B), CRC#1 is inserted for error checkingof encoded block #1, CRC#2 is inserted for error checking of encodedblock #2, CRC#3 is inserted for error checking of encoded block #3, andCRC#4 is inserted for error checking of encoded block #4. By this meansit becomes possible to check for the presence of an error in encodedblock units (that is, to check which block contains an error) with eachmodulation method.

Terminal #A then transmits retransmission data of only an encoded blockin which an error is present, for example. For example, when themodulation method is QPSK, if terminal #B determines that there is anerror only in encoded block #1, terminal #A transmits encoded block #1retransmission data. Similarly, when the modulation method is 16QAM, ifterminal #B determines that there are errors in encoded block #1 andencoded block #2, terminal #A transmits encoded block #1 and encodedblock #2 retransmission data.

The modulation method used in retransmission may be the same as themodulation method used for transmitting data up to the previous time, ormay be different. However, when transmitting retransmission data, also,use of a bit assignment method described in Embodiment 1, Embodiment 5,Embodiment 6, Embodiment 7, or Embodiment 10 is desirable for reasonsrelating to reception quality and encoder and decoder operating speeds.

By means of the above first ARQ method and second ARQ method,retransmission using a bit assignment method described in Embodiment 1,Embodiment 5, Embodiment 6, Embodiment 7, or Embodiment 10 can beimplemented. At this time, CRC information can be reduced if the firstARQ method is used, and the amount of retransmission data can be reducedif the second ARQ method is used.

In this embodiment, two ARQ methods (chase combining and hybrid ARQ)have been described as examples, but this embodiment is not limited tothese, and may be widely implemented including in cases in which anotherARQ method is used. Also, in this embodiment, a case in which a CRC isinserted has been described as an example, but when an LDPC code is usedand Belief Propagation decoding is performed, for example, a CRC neednot necessarily be inserted in order to be able to determine thepresence or absence of an error.

In this embodiment, single-carrier transmission has been described as anexample, but this embodiment is not limited to this, and can also beimplemented in a similar way when OFDM or suchlike multicarriertransmission is used. Also, a retransmission method of this embodimentcan also be applied to transmission using MIMO scheme such as shown inNon-patent Document 10. That is to say, a retransmission method of thisembodiment can be implemented irrespective of whether transmission usingMIMO scheme is or is not performed. Furthermore, implementation ispossible irrespective of whether the coding rate of encoded blocks arethe same or different.

Other Embodiments

In above Embodiment 1, the use of one encoding section 11 was taken as aprecondition in the description, but as a different embodiment, theabove embodiment can also be similarly implemented when the systemsupports a code with coding rate R=½ and ⅔ and a block length of 980bits, as long as implementation is performed separately for coding rateR=½ and ⅔. Furthermore, the same implementation as in the aboveembodiment can also be achieved when the system supports a code withcoding rate R=½ and ⅔ and block lengths of 980 and 1960 bits, as long asimplementation is performed separately in each case.

For example, in FIG. 5, FIG. 6, FIG. 7, FIG. 8, FIG. 31, FIG. 32, FIG.36, FIG. 48, FIG. 49, FIG. 50, FIG. 51, FIG. 55, FIG. 62, FIG. 66, FIG.71, FIG. 74, FIG. 79, FIG. 80, FIG. 83, and FIG. 84, encoded blocks #1,#2, #3, #4, #5, and #6 may each have a different coding rate. Also, 1stencoded data (#1), 2nd encoded data (#2), 3rd encoded data (#3), and 4thencoded data (#4) may each have a different coding rate. Furthermore,encoded data #1 coding rate R1, encoded data #2 coding rate R2, encodeddata #3 coding rate R3, and encoded data #4 coding rate R4 may all bemutually different values, or provision may be made so that R1=R2 andR3=R4, and R1 and R4 are different values. Combinations of encoded datafor which the coding rate is the same are not limited to the above. Bysetting coding rate in this way, a system can be constructed in whichdifferent items of data—such as speech data and packet data, video dataand packet data, or video data and speech data, for example—can besimultaneously transmitted in parallel using an error correction codewith desired error rate robustness (for example, using an coding rate ¾error correction code when transmitting speech data, and an coding rate⅓ error correction code when transmitting packet data).

Also, in FIG. 5, FIG. 6, FIG. 7, FIG. 8, FIG. 31, FIG. 32, FIG. 36, FIG.48, FIG. 49, FIG. 50, FIG. 51, FIG. 55, FIG. 62, FIG. 66, FIG. 71, FIG.74, FIG. 79, FIG. 80, FIG. 83, and FIG. 84, if the number of transmitbits per symbol of a modulation method is denoted by n, and there are mitems of data (that is, 1st encoded data (#1), 2nd encoded data (#2),m'th encoded data (#m) are present), provision may be made so that m>n(where m and n are both integers). By setting m>n, mutually differentencoded data are transmitted in all bits configuring one symbol, and allm items of encoded data are transmitted using more symbols.Consequently, the probability of most encoded data being erroneous in aburst fashion due to a fading notch is low, and data reception qualityis improved.

Therefore, in a transmitting apparatus in which switching is possibleamong a plurality of modulation methods, if the number of bits that canbe transmitted in one symbol by the modulation method having the maximumnumber of modulation multi-values (the maximum number of signal points)is denoted by n_(max) (where n_(max) is an integer), when thetransmitting apparatus generates n_(max) or more items of data (that is,1st encoded data (#1), 2nd encoded data (#2), . . . , n_(max)'th encodeddata (#m) are present), different encoded data can be transmitted in allbits configuring one symbol in all modulation methods for whichswitching is possible. Consequently, in all modulation methods for whichswitching by the transmitting apparatus is possible, the probability ofmost encoded data being erroneous in a burst fashion due to a fadingnotch is low, and therefore data reception quality is improved.

In above Embodiments 2 to 4, a case has been described of a MIMO systemusing spatial multiplexing in which a multi-antenna transmittingapparatus and multi-antenna receiving apparatus each have two antennas,but this is not a limitation, and similar implementation is alsopossible for a case in which the number of antennas is increased and thenumber of modulated signals transmitted is increased. Furthermore, thesame effect can also be obtained when the present invention is appliedto a system using a spread spectrum communication method.

A multi-antenna transmitting apparatus of the present invention is notlimited to the configuration shown in Embodiment 2, and can also beapplied, for example, to a MIMO system using an eigenmode. An eigenmodecommunication method will now be described using FIG. 59.

In a system using MIMO scheme, when Channel State Information (CSI) isknown not only on the receiving station side but also on thetransmitting station side, a communication method can be implementedwhereby the transmitting station transmits a signal vectored using atransmission channel signature vector to the receiving station by meansof a transmitting array antenna, and the receiving station detects anddemodulates the transmit signal using a reception channel signaturevector associated with the transmission channel signature vector from areceiving array antenna received signal.

In particular, as a communication mode in which multiplex transmissionof signals configuring a plurality of channels is performed in thecommunication space, there is an eigenmode that uses a channel matrixsingular vector or eigen vector. This eigenmode is a method that usesthis singular vector or eigenvector as an aforementioned channelsignature vector. Here, a channel matrix is a matrix that has complexchannel coefficients of a combination of each antenna element of thetransmitting array antenna and all or some of the antenna elements ofthe receiving array antenna as elements.

As a method whereby the transmitting station obtains downlink channelstate information, with TDD using carriers of the same frequency in aradio channel uplink and downlink, it is possible to perform estimatingor measuring of channel state information in the transmitting stationusing the uplink from the receiving station by means of channelreciprocity. On the other hand, with FDD using carriers of differentfrequencies in the uplink and downlink, accurate downlink CSI can beobtained by the transmitting apparatus by estimating or measuringdownlink channel state information in the receiving station andreporting the result to the transmitting station.

A characteristic of an eigenmode is that, particularly when a MIMOsystem radio channel can be handled as a narrow-band flat fadingprocess, MIMO system channel capacity can be maximized. For example, ina radio communication system that uses OFDM, it is usual for design tobe carried out so that guard intervals are inserted to eliminateinter-symbol interference due to multipath delayed waves, and OFDMsubcarriers are flat fading processes. Therefore, when an OFDM signal istransmitted in a MIMO system, using an eigenmode makes it possible, forexample, for a plurality of signals to be transmitted spatiallymultiplexed in each subcarrier.

As communication methods using a MIMO scheme, a number of methods havebeen proposed whereby, as opposed to an eigenmode in which downlinkchannel state information is assumed to be known in the transmittingstation and receiving station, channel state information for a radiochannel is known only in the receiving station. BLAST, for example, isknown as a method whereby signals are transmitted spatially multiplexedfor the same purpose as in an eigenmode. Also, transmission diversityusing a space time code, for example, is known as a method of obtainingan antenna space diversity effect without being intended to sacrifice ofthe degree of signal multiplexing—that is, to increase capacity. Whereasan eigenmode is a beam space mode in which a signal is transmittedvectored from a transmitting array antenna—in other words, a signal istransmitted after being mapped in beam space—BLAST and space diversitycan be considered to be antenna element modes due to the fact that asignal is mapped onto an antenna element.

FIG. 59 shows examples of the configurations of an eigenmodecommunication transmitter and receiver. Based on channel stateinformation that is the result of estimation of the propagation channelbetween the transmitting station and receiving station, transmissionchannel analysis section 2607 calculates a plurality of transmissionchannel signature vectors for configuring a multiplex channel, andbasing a channel matrix formed by means of the channel state informationon SVD (Singular Value Decomposition), finds eigenvalues (for example,λA, λB, λC, . . . , λX), and eigen paths (for example, path A, path B,path C, . . . , path X), and outputs these as control information 2608.

In the transmitting station, multiplex frame generation section 2601 hasa transmit digital signal and control information 2608 as input,generates a plurality of transmit frames for mapping onto multiplexchannels, and outputs channel A transmit digital signal 2602A, channel Btransmit digital signal 2602B, . . . , channel X transmit digital signal2602X.

Encoding/arranging/modulation section 2603A has channel A transmitdigital signal 2602A and control information 2608 as input, determinesthe coding rate and modulation method based on control information 2608,and outputs channel A baseband signal 2604A. The same operations arealso performed for channel B to channel X, and channel B baseband signal2604B to channel X baseband signal 2604X are obtained. To simplify thedrawing, the encoding/arranging/modulation sections are shown as oneblock in FIG. 59, but in actuality, a configuration such as that inabove Embodiments 1 to 3 is used, and block encoded data is arranged sothat encoded data within one block is assigned to a plurality of datasymbols by a arranging section, and supplied to a modulation section.

Vector multiplexing section 2605 has channel A to channel X basebandsignals 2604A to 2604X and control information 2608 as input, multiplieschannel A to channel X baseband signals 2604A to 2604X individually by achannel signature vector and performs combining, and then performstransmission to the receiving apparatus from transmitting array antenna2606.

In the receiving station, reception channel analysis section 2615calculates in advance a plurality of reception channel signature vectorsfor separating multiplexed transmit signals based on channel stateinformation that is the result of estimation of the propagation channelbetween the transmitting station and receiving station. Multiplex signalseparation section 2610 has received signals received by receiving arrayantenna 2609 as input, and generates a plurality of received signalsobtained by multiplying the channel signature vectors together—that is,channel A received signal 2611A to channel X received signal 2611X.

Decoding section 2612A has channel A received signal 2611A andtransmission method information 2618 as input, performs decoding basedon transmission method information 2618 (modulation method and codingrate information), and outputs channel A digital signal 2613A. The sameoperations are also performed for channel B to channel X, and channel Bdigital signal 2613B to channel X digital signal 2613X are obtained.

Transmission method information detection section 2617 has channel Adigital signal 2613A as input, extracts information on the transmittingmethod—for example, the modulation method and coding rate—of eachchannel, and outputs transmission method information 2618.

Receive data combining section 2614 has channel A to channel X digitalsignals 2613A to 2613X and transmission method information 2618 asinput, and generates a received digital signal.

In the above embodiment, the configuration in FIG. 33 has been taken asan example of the configuration of a transmitting apparatus forimplementing a transmitting method of the present invention, but theconfiguration of a transmitting apparatus for implementing atransmitting method of the present invention is not limited to theexample in FIG. 33.

For example, interleavers 8401_1 to 8401_4 may be provided in a stagesubsequent to encoding sections 11_1 to 11_4 as shown in FIG. 85, withencoded data 2902_1 to 2902_4 being bit-interleaved by interleavers8401_1 to 8401_4 before being input to mapping section 3304.Alternatively, plurality of encoded data 2902_1 to 2902_4 may beinterleaved by one interleaver and output to mapping section 3304. Here,too, as stated in Embodiment 8 and Embodiment 9, making the interleavepatterns (interleaving methods) different in each of interleavers 8401_1to 8401_4 enables data reception quality to be improved when thereceiving apparatus performs iterative detection.

Also, as shown in simplified form in FIG. 86, for example, puncturingsections 8501_1 to 8501_4, multiplexer (MUX) 8502, and interleaver 8503may be provided between encoding sections 11_1 to 11_4 and flappingsection 3304, with encoded data 2902_1 to 2902_4 being bit-interleavedby interleavers 8401_1 to 8401_4, multiplexed by multiplexer (MUX) 8502,and bit-interleaved by interleaver 8503 before being input to mappingsection 3304.

Thus, a transmitting method of the present invention can be implementedirrespective of the presence or absence, or location, of interleaversand puncturing sections.

FIG. 87 shows an example of the configuration of a receiving apparatuswhen the transmitting apparatus is as shown in FIG. 85 or FIG. 86. Partsin FIG. 87 corresponding to those in FIG. 35 are assigned the samereference codes as in FIG. 35. Receiving apparatus 8600 has the sameconfiguration as receiving apparatus 3500 in FIG. 35, except for theprovision of deinterleaver 8601 between soft value creation section 3007and assignment section 3009.

The disclosures of Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-299533, filed onNov. 2, 2006, Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-173156, filed on Jun.29, 2007, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-284582, filed on Oct.31, 2007, including the specifications, drawings and abstracts, areincorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention enables error rate performance degradation due tofading or the like to be suppressed by means of a simple configuration,and can be widely applied to communication devices for whichhigh-quality data transmission is required with a low computationalcomplexity, for example.

1. An output signal generating method comprising: generating, by aprocessor, a plurality of encoded data sequences configured by apredetermined number of bits, by encoding transmit data configured by aplurality of bits; generating one symbol sequence by one modulatingprocess, selected from a plurality of modulating processes, on theencoded data sequences; and outputting one baseband signal sequencegenerated by using an OFDM scheme, for the one symbol sequence, wherein:the one modulating process generates the one symbol sequence configuredby QPSK symbols generated by using a QPSK scheme or 16QAM symbolsgenerated by using a 16QAM scheme; the one symbol sequence generated byusing the QPSK scheme is configured with first two encoded datasequences in the plurality of encoded data sequences; the one symbolsequence generated by using the 16QAM scheme is configured with thefirst two encoded data sequences and second two encoded data sequencesin the plurality of encoded data sequences; a number of the 16QAMsymbols is the same as a number of the QPSK symbols in the one symbolsequence; specific two bits extracted from a plurality of bitsconfiguring the QPSK symbols and the 16QAM symbols in the one symbolsequence are bits belonging to the first two encoded data sequences; anumber of the encoded data sequences is changed according to theselected one modulating process; and each of the encoded data sequencesis configured with LDPC encoded data.
 2. The output signal generatingmethod according to claim 1, wherein other two bits different from thespecific two bits in the plurality of bits configuring the 16QAM symbolsare bits belonging to the second encoded data sequence different fromthe first encoded data sequence.
 3. A decoded data generating methodcomprising: inputting one modulated signal sequence generated by usingan OFDM scheme; generating, by a processor, one symbol sequence from theone modulated signal sequence; generating a plurality of encoded datasequences configured by a predetermined number of bits, from the onesymbol sequence; and generating decoded data configured by a pluralityof bits, by decoding the plurality of encoded data sequences, wherein:the one symbol sequence includes either QPSK symbols generated by usinga QPSK scheme or 16QAM symbols generated by using a 16QAM scheme; theone symbol sequence generated by using the QPSK scheme is configuredwith first two encoded data sequences in the plurality of encoded datasequences; the one symbol sequence generated by using the 16QAM schemeis configured with the first two encoded data sequences and second twoencoded data sequences in the plurality of encoded data sequences; anumber of the 16QAM symbols is the same as a number of the QPSK symbolsin the one symbol sequence; specific two bits extracted from a pluralityof bits configuring the QPSK symbols and the 16QAM symbols in the onesymbol sequence are bits belonging to the first two encoded datasequence; a number of the encoded data sequences is changed according tothe selected one modulating process; and each of the encoded datasequences is configured with LDPC encoded data.
 4. The decoded datagenerating method according to claim 3, wherein other two bits differentfrom the specific two bits in the plurality of bits configuring the16QAM symbols are bits belonging to the second encoded data sequencedifferent from the first encoded data sequence.
 5. An output signalgenerating apparatus comprising: an encoding section structured togenerate a plurality of encoded data sequences configured by apredetermined number of bits, by encoding transmit data configured by aplurality of bits; and a modulation section structured to select onemodulating process from a plurality of modulating processes, to generateone symbol sequence by the selected one modulating process on theencoded data sequences, and to output one baseband signal sequencegenerating by using an OFDM scheme for the one symbol sequence, wherein:the one modulating process generates the one symbol sequence configuredby QPSK symbols generated by using a QPSK scheme or 16QAM symbolsgenerated by using a 16QAM scheme; the one symbol sequence generated byusing the QPSK scheme is configured with first two encoded datasequences in the plurality of encoded data sequences; the one symbolsequence generated by using the 16QAM scheme is configured with thefirst two encoded data sequences and second two encoded data sequencesin the plurality of encoded data sequences; a number of the 16QAMsymbols is the same as a number of the QPSK symbols in the one symbolsequence; specific two bits extracted from a plurality of bitsconfiguring the QPSK symbols and the 16QAM symbols in the one symbolsequence are bits belonging to the first two encoded data sequences; anumber of the encoded data sequences is changed according to theselected one modulating process; and each of the encoded data sequencesis configured with LDPC encoded data.
 6. The output signal generatingapparatus according to claim 5, wherein other two bits different fromthe specific two bits in the plurality of bits configuring the 16QAMsymbols are bits belonging to the second encoded data sequence differentfrom the first encoded data sequence.
 7. A decoded data generatingapparatus comprising: an input section structured to input one modulatedsignal sequence generated by using an OFDM scheme; a demodulationsection structured to generate one symbol sequence from the onemodulated signal sequence, and to generate a plurality of encoded datasequences configured by a predetermined number of bits, from the onesymbol sequence; and a decoding section structured to generate decodeddata configured by a plurality of bits, by decoding the plurality ofencoded data sequences, wherein: the one symbol sequence includes eitherQPSK symbols generated by using a QPSK scheme or 16QAM symbols generatedby using a 16QAM scheme; the one symbol sequence generated by using theQPSK scheme is configured with first two encoded data sequences in theplurality of encoded data sequences; the one symbol sequence generatedby using the 16QAM scheme is configured with the first two encoded datasequences and second two encoded data sequences in the plurality ofencoded data sequences; a number of the 16QAM symbols is the same as anumber of the QPSK symbols in the one symbol sequence; specific two bitsextracted from a plurality of bits configuring the QPSK symbols and the16 QAM symbols in the one symbol sequence are bits belonging to thefirst two encoded data sequence; a number of the encoded data sequencesis changed according to the selected one modulating process; and each ofthe encoded data sequences is configured with LDPC encoded data.
 8. Theoutput signal generating apparatus according to claim 7, wherein othertwo bits different from the specific two bits in the plurality of bitsconfiguring the 16QAM symbols are bits belonging to the second encodeddata sequence different from the first encoded data sequence.